The first of a planned series of painting in the Baldwin City Community Mural Program is to be installed this spring downtown.

Jeannette Blackmar has a cure for Baldwin City residents who are sick of the dull monotones of winter. The Baldwin City Chamber of Commerce director is inviting them to embrace the Community Mural Program by helping fund and design the mural that will be painted downtown this spring.

The project is a partnership of the city, the chamber, the Lumberyard Arts Center and the Baldwin City Tourism Bureau.

Planning for the first of those murals, to be painted on the west wall of 608 High St., is already underway and now needs community support, Blackmar said. The city has made $3,000 available for the project through its downtown mural and facade program and the Tourism Bureau has also made a contribution. The project is now attempting to raise $550 from community donations. Blackmar said collection jars have been placed at the Lumberyard, Antiques on the Prairie, Baldwin State Bank, Kansas State Bank, Mid America Bank, Baldwin City Market, Gregg Bruce Auto and Performance and the chamber office. Contributions can also be sent to gofundme.com/bc-community-mural-program-fund.

The public is also being invited to help design the mural, Blackmar said. That will be done in a series of forums at which residents will be invited to share thoughts about what makes Baldwin City unique, what the community values and what is its heritage, she said. A design team of 10 to 15 members will further develop ideas shared at the forums, sketch ideas and develop consensus on the final design.

Lawrence artist David Loewenstein will lead the community effort to paint the mural in April, Blackmar said. It is expected to take 15 days. Once again, residents “young, old and in between” will be invited to help with the process, she said.

“This is open to everyone,” she said. “You don’t have to be creative or a great artist to participate. All are welcome to paint on the wall.”

The 608 High St. mural is the first of five to 10 murals envisioned, which will draw from Baldwin City’s cultural heritage and history. Blackmar envisions murals spaced around the city of such subjects as the Santa Fe Trail, the Battle of Blackjack, Signal Oak and the founding of Baker University.

“The murals will stimulate interest in Baldwin City’s rich cultural heritage among visitors and residents,” Blackmar said. “I can see people taking a bike tour from mural to mural to learn about more about Baldwin City.”

The goals of the mural project are to leverage the community’s heritage as a community development resource, increase community pride, increase tourism and employ local artists, Blackmar said. To learn more about the fundraising campaign or design forums, contact Blackmar at 785-594-3200 or jeannette@baldwincitychamber.com.

Eudora museum

Eudora should see the fruit of a shared community project in June when the Eudora Community Museum will be the first of six hosts of the traveling Smithsonian exhibit “Water/Ways.”

Landing the show presented a challenge to the museum. The exhibit is to be on the building’s second floor, which was not renovated with the bottom floor for the museum’s March 2015 opening. The top floor could also only be accessed by a rickety outdoor staircase from the back of the building. To address that, the museum sought and was awarded last spring an $89,000 Douglas County Cultural and Natural Heritage Conservation Grant to build an extension on the museum with an elevator and indoor staircase to the second floor.

Ben Terwilliger, executive director of the Eudora Area Historical Society, said work on the extension was nearly complete and ready for the elevator’s installation.

Renovations to the top floor were also ongoing, Terwilliger said. Much of the wall plastering and ceiling and floor refurbishing has be completed in the west part of the second floor, he said. The east part is not as far along, but he anticipated it would be completed in time for the Smithsonian exhibit in June, he said.

Douglas County Commission contributed to that continuing effort with the approval of an $89,000 Cultural and Natural Heritage Conservation Grant.

The “Water/Ways” exhibit deals with the centrality of water to our lives, looking at how we need it, use it and protect it.