Brownsville group teams with Cal U
BROWNSVILLE – Brownsville’s Southside Renaissance is pairing up with the art department at California University of Pennsylvania for a beautification project. “California University Art Department students are designing a mural. It will be on the bridge abutment near Fiddle’s,” said Lou Orslene, the executive director of the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation (BARC).
The Southside Renaissance group is a subcommittee of BARC. Fred Lapisardi, one of the Renaissance group members, is a former Cal U professor. R. Scott Lloyd of Cal U’s art department proposed the mural in collaboration with Lapisardi.
“They want to create a lengthy gateway as you come into the Southside,” Orslene said.
The gateway will include pocket gardens, plantings along the railroad retaining wall on Water Street and areas featuring steamboat artifacts.
The Cal U students are seeking public input for public art projects. Area residents and business owners are invited to a presentation on potential public art projects Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at the Flatiron Building.
The mural is one of four project goals focused on attracting business and investment into the Southside. It is supported by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. A welcome sign was erected at the corner of Bank and Market streets last year to mark the entrance to the Southside. It was also part of the ARC grant.
The ongoing beautification project calls for some trees to be cut, a general cleanup in the area and the restoration of a paddlewheel smokestack obtained from a historical group in Pittsburgh as a garden sculpture near the wharf.
“This project holds promise to create an attractive gateway for those who enter the community to conduct business or other activities, to build community pride and to keep up momentum for community change,” Orslene said.
Residents and business owners from the Southside, working in conjunction with Lucinda Robbins of the Fayette County Extension Service and BARC, are coordinating the beautification projects.