It took about a year for the team of Shepherd University student volunteers to create the mural on the walls of the campus walkway below Duke Street back in 2016-17 (image, below). Professor Sonya Evanisko, who led that team (also as a volunteer), recalled that it was a lot of work but also very rewarding and a great learning experience for the students. She thought about the project over the next few years, and when she heard about the opportunity to create a mural at the University’s Tabler Farm facility, she decided to build a course around the project.
The Tabler Farm mural was completed in the summer of 2023 and that project led to ROCS commissioning a mural for its store just west of Shepherdstown. Evanisko expected the ROCS mural to be the focus of her 2023-24 courses, but an unexpected offer from the Lewis family to host a mural on the side of the Betty’s Restaurant building in downtown Shepherdstown was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Installation Planned For April 2024
The new mural for downtown Shepherdstown is being painted on MDO panels which will be hung from the side of the Betty’s Restaurant building at 112 East German Street. Most of the mural will be painted in the campus studio, but a significant amount of detail painting and secondary elements will be added once the panels are installed on site.
Evanisko worked with her students to ideate the concept, ultimately focusing on the themes of arts, crafts, and invention related to the town’s history set in the context of the town’s natural surroundings. Evanisko and the students worked with the Town’s Historic Landmark Commission, which approved the downtown mural with the restriction that it be created on panels that could be attached (and removed) from the building surface, to preserve the historic integrity of the structure. The team expects to begin installation of the mural panels in April.
According to Prof. Sonya Evanisko (above, right), research for the mural project included lots of discussions with local residents about what elements could be included to represent Shepherdstown. Shepherd University student Charlotte Puttock (above, left) worked out the initial design for the mural by hand in her sketchbook (image below. The group then created mood boards to work out specific elements. The goal of the project is to create a memorable space that encourages visitors to interact with the artwork.
