A new mural is being painted in downtown Gillette this week. It will replace a deteriorating older mural.
A mustachioed cowboy painted by Gillette mural artist Harvey Jackson in 1999 is fading and cracking. It will be replaced with a collaborative piece. AVA Community Art Center is bringing in Denver artist Partick McGirr—a Gillette native—to help 15 to 20 kids create a new collage mural. Sarah Ferguson is on AVA’s board of directors. She says the new mural is about community pride expressed through the kids’ art.
“What is important to them in Wyoming, and specifically Gillette? Because I think right now, especially, they need to focus on the good in what’s going on in Gillette—and they’re a lot,” she said. “It’s a great way to portray a message or a mood of the community. It’s bringing our community together in an art project, and that’s what’s so great about public art.”
Ferguson says the new mural is about celebrating on the future. She says Gillette hopes to add a new mural every year or two.