Published: February 09, 2006 11:30 pm         

Artist to work with ISU students to create murals throughout Terre Haute

When asked why he is considering Terre Haute for his next mural project, artist Jeff Zimmermann said, “Why not Terre Haute?”

Zimmermann was in town Thursday presenting a lecture to Indiana State University art students after judging ISU’s student juried exhibit. The muralist from Chicago intends to return to the Wabash Valley in April this year to embark on the first of a series of public art projects as part of the new Gilbert Wilson Memorial Mural project.

The final contract has not been hammered out yet, but the artist is optimistic about the collaboration between ISU art students and himself. For the first venture, Zimmermann will work with students to create a mural on the south outside wall of the Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club.

The Gilbert Wilson Memorial Mural project was named in honor of the late muralist from Terre Haute, who created several large works of art in public buildings throughout the city, including in the entrance to Woodrow Wilson Middle School and in the University School on North Seventh Street.

Momentum for the current mural project came from Brad Venable, assistant professor of art education at ISU.

“The idea is to actually take a look at our downtown and revitalize it in terms of blank wall spaces,” Venable said. “We could become the Midwest center for murals, the way that Parke County has bridges.”

However, Venable’s vision could not be realized without funding. To come up with financial resources for the project, he instituted the help of fellow faculty member Nancy Nichols-Pethick, a painting instructor at the university.

They applied for a grant through the Center for Public Services and Community Engagement at ISU and were able to secure funds to go forward.

“One thing that was important to me,” Venable said, “was to give the project a title so it’s not a one-shot deal, so that we can have an ongoing, annual or biannual component.”

Venable said it seemed fitting to honor Wilson (1907-1991), one of the most outstanding mural painters in America in the 1930s and ’40s, according to the Swope Art Museum’s biography of the local artist. Wilson is known to have said, “Great art can and must be universal — but it must have its origins in a locality.” For Wilson, the locality was Terre Haute, his hometown.

Including students is part of the grant criteria, Nichols-Pethick said. All levels of ISU art students will be involved. The goals of the grant match the university’s goals of experiential learning for students and community engagement, according to Nichols-Pethick.

It also allows them to learn more about Wilson.

“It’s not a history that our students know a lot about, that Terre Haute has had a rich artistic past. [Wilson] really fit in that time with the larger trends in American art,” Nichols-Pethick said.

She said they have just begun telling students about the project, but few are aware of the details yet.

In choosing an artist to work with, Venable and Nichols-Pethick looked to Swope for ideas. David Vollmer, director of the museum, recommended Zimmermann after the artist’s “Inside Out” exhibit there from November to January this year.

Venable said Zimmermann is fairly well-known. He has created several well-respected murals throughout Chicago.

Making Terre Haute the site of his next enterprise is very much within the spirit of his art, Zimmermann said Thursday.

“It’s the same as my murals. Within them, I always have giant faces of people. A lot of people, after seeing the murals, sweat over who is depicted in the painting and when they come to me and say, ‘I give up, who is it?’ I tell them it’s just a regular person from the community. It’s no one famous,” he said.

“When they ask me why I bothered painting no one in particular, I say, ‘Why not?’ That’s what my art is about, the people in the community. Regular people.”

Zimmermann also said he hopes his images will lift people up in the community.

“I always want to do something edifying. People who see it every day should feel good about it,” he said.

Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.