Student murals coming to Gunnison

Two new murals are coming to Gunnison by the end of the month. The murals were selected from a contest that was held for art students from Western Colorado University and will be permanently installed at two Discount Self Storage locations by the end of the month.  The idea for the mural contest came from the team at Discount Self Storage, which has had success previously running similar mural contests at the local valley high schools. The proposal to work with Western students this time around was received, accepted and implemented by Western Design and Art Department Chair Tina Butterfield. The murals were designed to capture the essence of the Gunnison Valley, which was the designated theme of the contest. In addition to the reward of permanent artwork installation, Discount Self Storage also rewarded the winners of the mural contest with a $1,000 cash prize.

“We have a customer-facing business and a lot of members of the community storing with us and we were trying to think of a way to give back while also improving the way our property looks,” owner, and manager of Discount Self Storage Michael Fishman said. “We thought a really fun way of improving both of those things would be to involve students from the area to design some artwork to put on the facility and give the students a prize as our additional way of giving back so that the students can further their education or whatever pursuits they have next.”

Students from adjunct art professor Cierra Rohrbaugh’s Intro to Painting class were urged to apply for the contest, along with several other mural opportunities. This particular class focused largely on murals as a way to expose art students to art forms that go beyond the classroom. Rohrbaugh herself has previous experience with mural painting, which made her an optimal choice for overseeing this project.

“At Western we have what we call high impact practices or HIP practices, which are supposed to be more like real world opportunities,” Rohrbaugh said. “This semester’s class was heavily based on mural-making, but the opportunities were all things that the students had to apply themselves to and make proposals for.”

This particular opportunity gave students the ability to learn from and participate in the process by which a mural gets created, submitted and selected by a business. They had to adhere to and work within specific parameters and aspect ratios. It also gave them the opportunity to have a piece of their artwork permanently displayed in the town of their alma mater.

The two art students who won the contest were junior Andilyn Hope Ferguson and freshman Spencer Gall. Ferguson’s mural, which depicts a mountain biker recreating at Hartman Rocks, will adorn the Discount Self Storage airport location, while Gall’s mural will be on display at the storage facility’s north location on Highway 135 just north of Gunnison. Both murals will be installed in areas that will be highly visible to people traveling on major thoroughfares and roadways in the valley.

“When I heard that this was a mural class I got really excited, especially hearing about this opportunity,” Ferguson said. “At my location at the airport, it’s really exciting to know that people can fly in and see my mural and that it’s going to be a part of the community for a long time.”

Instead of painting their images on the buildings directly, the students’ artwork will be printed large-scale on durable materials like aluminum to withstand weather and the test of time.

Ferguson also had another mural selected for permanent installation at the Sapinero Village campground near Blue Mesa.

“This definitely has opened a possibility for me, I’ve been having a lot of fun with this,” Ferguson said. “I’d like to do something creative and start my own art business. I could see myself doing more murals in the future.”

As for the future, Fishman said that Discount Self Storage will continue to think about creative ways to engage with the Gunnison Valley community.

“We are a Western Colorado-based business and we want to keep thinking of ways to help the communities [we are based in], beautify our spaces and keep doing fun things like this,” Fishman said. “I have ideas of running additional contests in future years. The hope is that we just keep adding more murals around the facility. ”

For more information on the facility, visit discountselfstorage.com.

(Gia Wright can be contacted at 970-641-1414 or jwright@orourkemediagroup.com.)