Projected market mural- Haymaker Farmers' Market

The Kent market is in the midst of its 18th year having begun in 1992 making it the first public farmers’ market in the area. 2010 marks a record year both in terms of diversity and number of vendors as well as in attendance by the public. According to the market manager,  the Music @ the Market series spotlighting local musicians and the now completed market bench project have contributed to market growth in recent years. The music series has been partially funded through the city of Kent’s Celebrate Kent! grant.

Fritz Seefeldt

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Friends,

HFM annual spring meeting took place Saturday March 27th at Kent Free Library. The board of directors passed along decisions which were then formally voted on by the general membership. A new board of directors was elected and opening date and fee structure were approved.  For more information click on the link for a Word document transcript of the meeting minutes.

Fritz Seefeldt.

2010 spring meeting minutes

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Haymaker Farmers’ Market board present idea for mural

The proposal would turn the underside of the state Route 59 bridge into a structural mural.

Fritz Seefeldt, manager of Haymaker Farmers’ Market, dreams of working beneath a new canvas this September.

About two weeks ago, the market’s board of directors presented the idea for a mural in an application for state funding to the Ohio Arts Council.

The proposal would turn the underside of the state Route 59 bridge, now covered with graffiti, into a structural mural, designed by Elaine Hullihen, a local artist and Kent State graduate.

“There will be agricultural scenes as well as scenes from the farmers’ market and downtown Kent,” Seefeldt said. “And it will also involve the community in the painting itself. We’re going to have volunteers doing the painting — citizens and students — hopefully Kent State art students.”

Seefeldt, who developed the concept with help from Jeff Ingram, director of Standing Rock Cultural Arts, a local art awareness group, said he drew inspiration from two places.

The first was a mural by Kent local Edwin George, a Native American Folk artist who received an individual artist’s grant from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005. The mural, entitled “Love,” is painted on the northern wall of Scribbles Coffee Co. on North Water Street. ? Seefeldt’s second inspiration was an overpass he discovered while traveling through North Carolina.

The colorful mural along the heavily traveled Lexington Avenue depicts the history of the Asheville area in what is called the Asheville Mural Project.

To bring Asheville’s idea to Kent, the board’s next step is to propose the project to Kent City Council and the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Seefeldt said he anticipates full support from council. Ward 5 councilwoman Heidi Shaffer holds a place on the market’s board of directors and is already in support of the project.

“I think the more public art a place has, the more it expresses its character,” she said. “It’s sort of an example of grassroots public art. Rather than a statue being commissioned by a city administration, I think it’s very different. It’s more like this comes from the people.”

Shaffer also said the project would benefit the city in ways beyond visual appeal.

“The peeling paint on the support of the bridge (has) really detracted from the beauty of the farmers’ market,” she said. “And I think that the manager was concerned about peeling paint and children. So it was more than just an aesthetic issue, it was also a safety issue.”

Also on board is Kent City Manager Dave Ruller, who has created buzz about the mural recently through his blog.

In his March 3 entry about the mural, Ruller wrote, “It’s just crazy enough to be perfectly Kent.”

Coinciding with downtown revival initiatives and a recent uprising from the local art community, the mural would be a year-round fixture of the city, offering a unique backdrop to those who work and shop at Haymaker Farmers’ Market May through October.

The biggest hurdle, Seefeldt said, may be gaining approval from ODOT, which owns the bridge. Materials will have to be analyzed to determine their affect on concrete, and all specifications must be submitted to the department. ?? Despite the hurdle, Seefeldt is hopeful.

“I think they are likely to approve because there have been precedents for projects like this on public bridges before,” he said. “One example is the I-240 overpass in Asheville, N.C. That’s a federal highway, governed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.”

Seefeldt said if the board does not receive the state grant, the project may be pushed back a few months, but he is confident that Kent residents and market-goers will see a change in landscape soon.

Contact public affairs reporter Samantha Laros at slaros@kent.edu

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Friends,
Dave Ruller has always been supportive of our market here in Kent and I wanted to pass along his most recent “Kent 360″ blog update that features our proposed mural project. Artist Elaine Hullihen and I met with Dave this past week and discussed the public art project and how the city fits into the picture. There are still many details that will need to be sketched in as things progress, but I believe we’re quite a few brush strokes closer than two weeks ago. I appreciate the role that Dave plays in facilitating positive change in our diverse city and look forward toward more city/market interaction in the future.
Please feel free to comment and reply. This market is about all of you, the vendors, friends and members of our community.
Fritz Seefeldt.

Art Spark…

My mention of the Haymaker Farmer’s Market interest in an art mural on the columns beneath the Haymaker Bridge earlier in the week sparked a fair amount of interest from folks.  People seemed to feel that the Market was on to something good and they were letting me know that we (aka the City) needs to do more to promote public art projects like this since art runs deep in Kent’s DNA — both formally with the art education programs and professional galleries like the KSU Gallery and the McKay Bricker Gallery, and at the other end of the spectrum with a glom of  indie artists randomly found around town doing their own thing in unexpected places (like streetcorners or at the Professor’s Pub).

I tend to agree that the City needs to do whatever it can to advance the arts — both the formal and informal forms of creative expression.  I don’t make that statement to be politically correct or for some philanthropic agenda, rather if we’re serious about selling the Kent experience as an eclectic mix of characters, places and sensory stimuli then art has to be part of the community conversation and stake it’s claim at the alter of eccentric Kent.  The adjectives and descriptors of art — quirky, surprising, confusing, thought provoking, and even shocking — also happen to pop up when talking about many aspects of Kent so in that regard art resonates and even amplifies the Kent ethos (or milieu for the high brow artists among us.)

Our efforts to market the Kent lifestyle is not unique to us — it’s the core of a lot of city development efforts.  Those bold Texans in Austin have taken it so far as to proudly adopt the tag line “Keep Austin Wierd” in a national campaign to be the world headquarters of everything odd.  You can’t help but admire the lengths they’ve gone to realize their aspiration — the video of the 6?4? cowboy walking down the street in his raw hide boots and matching thong did me in but clearly they have no fear in embracing their unique sense of style.

Another ambitious city that has embraced the off-beat is Asheville North Carolina.  They’ve carved themselves a unique place in the mountains of North Carolina that is equal parts hippie and hill-billy – and it works really well.  Great art, great street scene, great restaurants and a surprising mix of people of all kinds of dispositions.

It turns out that Asheville is one of the sources of inspiration for the Kent art mural project that has been adopted by the Haymaker Farmer’s Market.  They’ve got their own infrastructure art thing going on.

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As market manager, part of my job is to facilitate improvements in our market location.  Last year we were able to provide leveling of the north lot through generous donations and your hard work,  gravel spreading,  brush trimming and the placement of 6 permanent benches along Franklin Avenue in front of our market.  Continuing in this vein, my friend Jeff Ingram of North Water Street Gallery and I along with artist  Elaine Hullihen of Kent,  met a few weeks ago and discussed the possibility of improving the appearance and ambiance of our market location.

Jeff, being well connected in Kent’s active arts and entertainment community contacted artist Elaine Hullihen, and asked if she would be interested in being involved in a mural project that  would include the columns and lintels of the Haymaker viaduct.  At our meeting,  Elaine presented some of her ideas in the form of a scale model of the bridge painted with her concept and several sketches of details of those murals.  I was very impressed with her talent, imagination and level of commitment not only to the project at hand, but also to our farmers’ market.  At her request, I made some small suggestions of additional elements that might be included such as musicians, bakers and most importantly our loyal customers.

Elaine Hullihen and Fritz Seefeldt meet at North Water Street Gallery.

After completing the final concept and organizing it into a package, it will be presented to the city manager Dave Ruller along with Kent city council.  Our ward council-person and board member Heidi Shaffer along with our city Service Director Gene Roberts  will be over seeing city communications.

I am coordinating the funding and logistics part of the project.  I am applying for an Ohio Arts Council funding grant and hope to have it completed in two weeks. We will also be seeking local funding through the city of Kent,  private businesses and organizations as well as individuals.

A project such as this will serve to improve the ambiance of our market site,  act as a reminder to the community of our market even during off season,  allow community participation through funding and actual painting of the mural, and act as a media and public attraction for our Kent downtown business district.  Please let us know what you think of this project and any ideas that may help to move us closer toward making it a reality.

All the best to everyone!

Fritz Seefeldt.

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