Going aground

After 18 years on the south side of a building at 116 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau's first mural will be removed in order for the building's new owners to make renovations.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri and the River Heritage Mural Association, however, plan for the mural to live on at a different downtown location yet to be decided.

Arts council executive director Becky Fulgham said the mural has a lot of sentimental value because it was the first one in Cape Girardeau.

Fulgham said Cape Girardeau uses its murals as a tourism tool. With all the attention on the new murals the mural association is putting on the floodwall, she said, "it would be a shame to lose the one that really started this."

The mural, which depicts the top of a steamboat on the Mississippi near Port Cape, was placed on its present location in 1986 and was dedicated at that year's Riverfest, the now-defunct downtown celebration. The mural's design, by Jim Parker, was chosen through an arts council competition.

Fulgham said she talked with the building's new owners, Matthew and Dennis Vollink, about keeping the mural on the building. When they said it had to be removed, she thought the next best thing would be relocation.

Dennis Vollink said the mural has to be removed in order to make architectural improvements to the building that he and his son have owned for a little more than a year. Part of the planned improvements include the addition of windows on the mural wall and insulation.

The building will house three above-ground apartments and a retail store on the Main Street level, Vollink said. Exterior work and removal of the mural should not begin until May, while the interior work should be getting underway shortly, he said.

"Everybody is working to improve the downtown area," he said. "It has come a long way, and a couple of key buildings like this might help quite a bit."

Mural association president Tim Blattner said his organization was disappointed to hear the mural was being removed from its present location but now is focusing on finding it a new, easily visible home.

Although a definite location has not been found, the mural will be placed at another downtown location, according to those involved in the relocation.

Parker, a local artist and founding director of the Southeast Missouri State University Museum, said he was disappointed when he heard about the planned removal, but now he thinks it will likely be placed at a much better location.

"You sort of hate to see things go, but that's inevitable," he said. In a new location, the mural "will be a draw for visitors and the people of Cape."

Moving crew

Relocating the mural, however, will cost money. The arts council and the mural association are preparing to do some fund raising through their "Move Our Mural" campaign. The first part of the campaign will raffle off a watercolor painting of a flower and butterflies Parker created for the event.

Raffle tickets first will be available during the First Anniversary Celebration of the Visual Arts Cooperative at the arts council's galleries at 32. N. Main St. starting at 5 p.m. Friday.

Individual tickets will cost $10. Three tickets are available for $25. After the celebration, tickets will be available at the arts council or from arts council members. Prints of the mural also will be for sale at the arts council. All proceeds will go toward the mural relocation.

The winner of the painting will be announced at the ArtsCape Spring Arts Festival May 22.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182