Westcott Street Mural

Artist: Alex Biegler / 2013

The Westcott Mural project was a two-year project to commission a new mural for the neighborhood on a wall, which had previously had a mural that had been damaged and removed.  The WACC and the new owner of the building (Norman Roth) came together out of concern for the community and the need to replace the former Seven Rays mural which had been damaged due to the deterioration of the building under previous owners. The WACC asked for public input on what “Westcott Street Means to Me.” The answers were collected on the WACC web-site. A request for proposals was circulated and advertised through many neighborhood organizations. A committee of several WACC board members, a representative of the owner and other community members including artists reviewed the applications and selected this piece.  

The artist selected was Alex Biegler.  The project was completed in 2013.

From the artist:

The Westcott mural takes on the idea of community directly by representing its structures and parts through concrete images intermingled with representational forms. To address specific aspects of the community from any one perspective results in an incomplete if not unfair view, thus, the mural aims to take a universal approach by discussing the idea of community itself. This will serve both to confirm and challenge the public by providing a mirror of what they already value and connecting this value to its importance with the past, present, and future of the earth. Community serves such a vital role in the health of our societies that it seems imperative to explore it in a public context. The mural on Westcott will accomplish this by examining the relationship between the individual, the community, and the globe. The location requires both vibrancy and interaction. At a distance, a certain energy and boldness will be required to counteract all that is happening around the space. However, with the desire to direct pedestrians around the building and the pinching of space (between the Papa John’s and the mural) the mural must also interact at the two to four foot range in the western most area. This challenge will be resolved through a varied use of detail. In the end, the mural will serve both to beautify and to stimulate.

The project was funded by a grant from CNYArts and a matching amount from the building owner Norman Roth.