Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Project 412 has some bite-size art projects on the horizon for Detroit Lakes.
During the city council meeting on Aug. 8, Mary Beth Gilsdorf, a member of the Lake Region Arts Council, said the group plans on putting up 10 smaller, tiny art pieces around highly trafficked areas of the city.
Project 412 art surprises, Aug. 2023 by Michael Achterling on Scribd
She also said the pieces will all feature a QR-code so people will know the art piece is legitimate and not graffiti.
“We’re calling them art surprises, which I would define them as tiny murals,” said Gilsdorf. “Most of them are going to go in different little public areas. They are all going to have QR codes like this, so people know that they are legit and not graffiti. And we’re looking for 10 of them and right now we have four of them (to go) on public buildings.”
Gilsdorf also presented the preliminary designs for the art surprises, that were created by Hannah Spry, to the city council.
Some of the ideas include:
- A UFO shining a beam down on the ground for possible selfie opportunities on the side of the Precision Printing building.
- A mouse relaxing in a the hole created by a broken brick in the Holiday Haven flower bed.
- A snowboarding polar bear grinding the railing outside the Pemberton Law and Counselor Realty courtyard.
- And a green tentacle monster moving a manhole cover near the Ace Hardware building.
Gilsdorf said the designs are subject to change, but the group wanted to start the approval process for getting the city’s go-ahead for placing art pieces on some parcels of city-owned property.
“I don’t know if we have to present specific this design in this space, but we at least wanted to start getting the process started for your approval to put some of these fun things on public way,” she said.
The tiny mural, art surprises are being paid for by the same Blandin Foundation grant that is responsible for the larger building murals around Detroit Lakes and the utility box wrapping project.
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