Legends to unveil LexArts mural Thursday;
two more to follow at Hurst Group, Saul Good

One mural will be unveiled Thursday at the Lexington Legends baseball game, and two more are nearing completion as part of LexArts‘ latest mural project.

The Lexington Mural Project, which started in 2008, worked with three area businesses — the Legends, Saul Good Restaurant and Pub in Hamburg and the Hurst Group near downtown — to create the murals, which are on the outside of buildings.

The private business partnerships are new for LexArts’ mural project. The businesses approached LexArts and paid for the artwork, while LexArts helped find the artists, said Jim Clark, LexArts’ president and CEO.

“It kind of shows how the arts and business go hand-in-hand,” said Tania Blanich, chief operating officer of LexArts.

LexArts and the businesses hope the murals make art more accessible.

“Public art is something that you don’t have to dress up to go see,” Blanich said. “It takes the perceived elitism out of art, so the person who would feel uncomfortable going to a gallery can go up to the Hurst building and appreciate what was done.”

Clark added that the art creates links between different neighborhoods. Pointing to the mural on the side of the Hurst building at Elm Tree Lane and Short Street, he said it connects downtown with the East End.

“That’s an important aspect as we look at the redevelopment of downtown,” he said.

LexArts put out a national call for artists to complete the murals, and the group received over 100 entries. The chosen artists, which were announced in late July, were picked because their work created “a sense of place.”

“They respond to the local history and also the geography,” Clark said.

The mural, which will be unveiled during the third inning of the Legends game, is on a wall facing the parking lot at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.

Completed by Esteban Camacho Steffensen, of Portland, Ore., the mural not only reflects the Legends but also the Lexington Hustlers, an African American baseball team that used to play in Lexington, Clark said.

It also has references to bourbon, horses and bluegrass.

Reflecting the neighborhood was important to Andy Shea, the Legends’ general manager, who is also on LexArts’ board of directors. While the art is on a privately owned wall, it’s a part of the neighborhood, he said.

The mural “wasn’t so much about baseball or the history of the Legends … but a broad spectrum of Lexington and what Lexington and Kentucky are known for,” he said. “There was a ton of research and stuff that went into each one of his brushstrokes. It really was that detailed. He went out to Keeneland one day (to sketch horses). We went to Woodford Reserve.”

Steffensen also worked with youth from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, for which Shea also volunteers. And one of the youth is honored by having his face depicted in the face of a baseball player in the mural, Clark said.

“It took them out of their neighborhood for a few hours,” Shea said. “They got a chance to see this isn’t just some guy and a paintbrush.”

Char Downs, of Paducah, is finishing the mural on the side of the Hurst Group building. The mural aims to depict the history of horse racing in the area.

She also led a workshop with volunteer artists from Lexington prior to painting at the site.

Jeff Schaller, of Downington, Pa., is creating a mural featuring the history of the area around Hamburg Farms for Saul Good at the Hamburg Pavilion.

“There’s a little bit of a nod to the famous Derby Eve party that Anita Madden (owner of Hamburg Place) used to throw” in the mural, Clark said.

For the mural, Schaller is painting parachute fabric with acrylic paint offsite, and then hanging it like wallpaper on the building. He then paints additional imagery onsite.

The murals at Saul Good and the Hurst building will be finished in the next month, Clark said.

The mural project started three years ago when LexArts worked with neighborhood associations, LexTran, the YMCA and professional artists to create murals on Vine Street, North Limestone, Southland Drive and Louden Avenue.

“It sort of reinforces what makes this place special, and I think for residents and visitors alike, it creates a more human environment,” Clark said of the art. “It enhances the pedestrian friendly nature of the city by having these projects that you can either stumble upon or take a walking tour to.”

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The Lexington Legends play the Kannapolis Intimidators tonight. The game begins at 7:05 p.m., and the mural will be unveiled during the third inning.