Arts group bringing color, patriotism to Shelley Main Street this holiday weekend
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SHELLEY — The windows of businesses along Main Street in Shelley will be a lot more colorful this Fourth of July weekend, thanks to the Shelley Supporters of the Arts.
The Supporters, an organization that supports artists and their projects in Bonneville and Bingham counties, is painting a series of patriotic scenes on windows facing Main Street. The scenes depict everything from military tributes to patriotic bees and potatoes.
It’s a project designed to give local residents a shot of cheerfulness during this current time of unrest, said Supporters co-chairwoman Jacqueline Wittwer.
“We decided to do something to cheer people up,” Wittwer said. “There’s a lot of people under a lot of stress right now with COVID-19 and with the Fourth of July celebrations being canceled all over the place. So, we approached some of the businesses in town and asked if we could paint their windows.”
Wittwer said the project started over a week ago with more than thirty volunteers contributing to the paintings. The Supporters let the businesses pick which scenes they wanted to be depicted on their windows and tried to offer images that tied in with the services offered by the businesses.
“For example, for Farmers’ Insurance, we have a tractor with a trailer with fireworks and another trailer with potatoes in it,” said Wittwer. “For Treats Candy Store, we have an old antique pickup full of candy. For the barbershop, everything is kind of a western theme, so today we’re painting horseshoes that are patriotic.”
The centerpiece of the project is the Virginia Theater, which is adorned with patriotic imagery galore.
All in all, Wittwer said that the Supporters will be painting a total of 65 panes of glass along Main Street and also extending down several side streets, a big task for which they sought volunteers to help. The group found their volunteers primarily through word of mouth.
“Our organization, we asked them to contact people, contact friends,” said Wittwer. “We’ve had quite a few missionaries help us. We have artists. We have a couple of teenage boys that have been painting or drawing for us.”
The group also contacted artists with experience painting windows for valuable tips on how to paint images on glass panes.
The end goal is to give people something that will buoy their spirits and that they can do while also minimizing their exposure to the novel coronavirus.
“We just wanted to have something positive where we don’t have to go near anyone,” Wittwer said. “You can just around and look at these and have a fun family experience without being around a large group of people.”
“When the Melaleuca festival got canceled, we thought ‘What can we do that’s gonna be socially distanced but really fun,” she added. “So we just started doing fun paintings on the windows.”
The painting will continue through Thursday night, with the goal of having all the scenes painted by Friday, July 3. The community is invited to come out, drive around, look at the painting and maybe even stop to get some food or drink at the Main Street eateries. You can also walk along Main Street if you’d like to get a closer look at the Supporters’ work.
For more information on the Shelley Supporters of the Arts, you can drop by their website or visit their Facebook page.