CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Cedar Rapids has reached an agreement with a foundation to help pay the cost of uncovering and restoring another Depression-era mural in the City Council’s new home.
The council this week approved a deal with the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation to restore the second of four murals that adorn the walls of what used to be a courtroom in the federal courthouse, The Gazette reported Wednesday.
Cedar Rapids has transformed the courthouse into its new City Hall.
The city will match private donations raised by the foundation. The city is seeking federal grants to help.
The estimated cost of the restoration work is $124,000, said Sandi Fowler, special assistant to the city manager.
Fowler said Tom Aller, president of Alliant Energy’s Interstate Power and Light Co., has agreed to help raise private donations for the work. If funds are secured, bids will be sought, likely this winter, she said.
The murals are referred to as Work Progress Administration art. They were painted by artists employed by the federal government during the Depression. The murals were painted over in 1954, uncovered, then painted over again in the 1960s when questions were raised about the quality of the art and themes.
The federal courthouse and City Hall were damaged in the 2008 flood. The city took ownership of the repaired courthouse as part of a property swap, with the city providing land for a new federal courthouse.
Before the City Council convened its first meeting in its new City Hall in April 2011, the mural on the room’s north wall had already been uncovered and restored with funds from the U.S. General Services Administration. The restoration work was part of the swap agreement.
The WPA-period murals surround the top portion of all four walls. They’re about 5 feet tall and 8 1/2 feet off the floor above the room’s wood paneling.
Mel Andringa, a Cedar Rapids artist, said the first mural that was restored is a political commentary on civilization from the suffering of American Indians to the use of slaves and Chinese laborers to the arrival of the industrial era.
He said the second mural to be restored addresses archaeology, the introduction of agriculture, the making of a documentary film and other scenes.
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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazetteonline.com/
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