11-Year-Old Artist Contributes to Downtown Salina Beautification Project

# 11-Year-Old Artist Contributes to Downtown Salina Beautification Project

A fifth-grade student is lending his artistic talents to beautify downtown Salina as part of an ongoing trash corral mural project.

Jake, an 11-year-old artist, is collaborating with downtown business owner Julie Cates on their second trash corral mural, featuring ocean animals. The young artist is responsible for much of the painting while Cates handles the sketching.

"I really like coloring in. So that's like my big job right now," Jake said. "I did a bunch of the angler fish and right now I'm doing all the coral on this."

The project is part of a larger initiative between Salina Downtown, Inc. (SDI), Salina Arts and Humanities, and the city of Salina Parks and Recreation Department to transform downtown trash corrals into works of art.

Leslie Bishop, executive director at SDI, initially approached Salina Arts and Humanities after one trash corral had been completed as part of an artwork alley pre-festival event. The collaboration emerged as a solution to replace aging slats on downtown trash corrals while creating opportunities for artists.

"It creates a really rich and vibrant scene in the downtown, and it's just a way to engage local and regional artists into this space," a representative from Salina Arts and Humanities explained.

The city's Parks and Recreation Department handles the deinstallation of old materials and prepares the panels for artists, while SDI contributes funds for artist fees and materials.

Currently, six of the 16 downtown trash corrals have been completed, with plans to finish two more each year. The mural Jake is working on will be located behind the Market Shop, while he and Cates completed their first corral behind their studio last year.

For Jake, the project has been rewarding. "Just being able to walk around downtown and seeing my name that I've wrote on murals is just a really good feeling I can't describe," he said.

Cates noted the importance of involving young people in these projects: "When kids get involved and area high school students can get involved, there's ownership. And then parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents want to come down and see what their kids have done."

The Community Art and Design Committee reviews artist proposals for the project, which aims to make downtown Salina a destination and community for everyone.