BUCKHANNON – ART26201, the Upshur County Board of Education and the City of Buckhannon recently gained funding to complete a colorful piece of artwork, which now spans the 600 feet of Traders Alley in hopes it will give pedestrians and art enthusiasts a fun and colorful reason to visit Buckhannon’s actively growing Arts District.
They also hoped last Friday and Saturday’s Traders Alley Pavement Marking event would provide youth with an opportunity to participate in the execution of public artwork, helping them develop a feeling of ownership in the art itself and the Traders Alley Arts District – and enhance their pride in the Buckhannon-Upshur community.
Over the course of June 4-5, ART 26201 members and volunteers – along with more than 20 Buckhannon-Upshur High School students, Arts Department Chair at B-UHS Heidi Thompson and Pittsburgh-based environmental artist and landscape architect Ashley Kyber – worked to complete the Pavement Marking in Traders Alley in downtown Buckhannon. The markings also branch out on to Milkman Lane to Spring Street and are meant to serve as a welcoming bridge, linking downtown Buckhannon to Jawbone Park.
In completing the streetscape, Kyber and other art volunteers drew the outlines of the flowing forms with chalk and the students helped complete the painting of the Pavement Markings using bright yellow, white and red highway paints. Kyber said the markings should last approximately five years. Bryson VanNostrand, president of ART26201 and city architect, said Traders Alley was first seal-coated to make the alley black, which made the other colors pop in the Pavement Marking.
Ashley Kyber, environmental artist and landscape architect from Pittsburgh, weighs in on the artwork’s origin
Kyber said she has been completing citizen engagement activities with communities in visual arts for many years – projects like the Traders Alley Pavement Marking.
“I actually worked on the sail wall in Traders Alley as well,” Kyber said. “We needed a visual screen and Bryson did not want it to be a solid structure. Traders Alley flows in between and around all of the spaces and gets into the parts we cannot express with words.”
Kyber said that was part of the inspiration for the Traders Alley Pavement Marking.
“There are lots of flowing patterns in the graphics,” Kyber said. “For me, I always go back to the spirals – it represents a connection to water, but it is also a fluidity that our culture needs to re-embrace with the arts and with music and understanding diversity of life and the environment. We need to be more accepting of things that we do not necessarily understand.”
She said for the project they utilized the Division of Highways’ safety yellow, safety white and safety red paints.
“If you go down Highway 20 and you go down West Virginia roads, you get these spectacular roads and dips and turns,” Kyber said. “We are bringing that back to Traders Alley. It is a tiny little snapshot of the highways in West Virginia. We want folks to be in Traders Alley and feel welcome and to feel a part of the art that is happening. It is not about Bryson, and it is not about ART26201. It is not about my ideas; it is about getting other people connected to art and that is how we fit.”
Kyber said the art created on Friday and Saturday was a concept she designed more than four years ago for the project.
“We knew the time would come, and there was a grant to re-engage teens after a really hard year of learning,” she said. “We were able to engage them in a physical art-making project. I was here two days ahead and was able to use sidewalk chalk to draw out the project. When it rained, we had to use a hard mason’s crayon. When the students came on Friday, we talked about what the purpose of the project was, and I think they knew it was theirs.”
“They worked hard and got most of the project completed within several hours,” Kyber added. “Then, they were able to walk up and down and decide where touch-ups needed to be made and where the art needed to be tightened up. What was great was they were doing it.”
Kyber said working with the students was a fantastic experience.
“I want to send a shout out to Heidi (Thompson),” Kyber said. “She brought to them (the students) a passion for teaching and she had a connection with those kids, and that is what made it.”
Bryson VanNostrand, president of ART26201, talks about the Traders Alley Pavement Marking event
VanNostrand said originally, ART26201 did not envision the Traders Alley Pavement Marking to be a youth engagement project.
“A bunch of us artsy adults here in town thought we would be doing it, but when the grant opportunity came around, we thought it would be great,” VanNostrand said. “So much of what ART26201 is doing relates to the kids – everything we are trying to do in this town is to fundamentally convey a progressive, creative and welcoming spirit to our youth. As you know, they think Buckhannon is not cool and we want to prove them wrong. There is some progressive and interesting stuff happening in Buckhannon.”
VanNostrand said direct connections with youth is a high priority.
“First, it started with the ribbons (near the Main Street entryway of Traders Alley)” VanNostrand said. “We would find people taking their selfies with the ribbons. We began seeing wedding announcements and engagement announcements with pictures taken under the ribbons. Then, prom happened. All the kids came here in their suits in their sports cars with their girls on their arms to get photos with the ribbons. We realized we were actually starting to connect with the kids and that the kids thought Traders Alley is cool and they wanted to be a part of it in some way.”
He said securing the grant and engaging the teens was not only a good way to let them see that cool things were happening in Buckhannon, but also actually gave them a way to get them involved.
“If you are trying to get these kids to feel a sense of ownership and instill pride in their community – we were able to get them involved and have real ownership – it is a unique opportunity,” VanNostrand said. “Heidi (Thompson) is loved by her students. We told her the only way we could do this is if she was in charge of recruiting the kids.”
VanNostrand said he was truly impressed with the students and their work on the Traders Alley Pavement Marking project.
“Some of the kids just jumped right in and were totally devoted to the project,” he said. “They were taking their time and were 100 percent committed. Those are the kids that are going to come through here and know they painted these leaves. I am of the opinion that the doing of the artwork is more important than the finished product. I think the memories of doing it is what students will remember and that is what will make them know Buckhannon is a cool town. Integrating the youth in this project made it so much better.”
ART26201 thanks the West Virginia Department of the Arts, Culture and History for funding for the event
Funding for the project was made possible though a 2021 Rural Youth Engagement through Public Art Grant written by ART26201, Inc. to the West Virginia Department of the Arts, Culture and History. The application detailed that ART26201 would host a project, the Traders Alley Pavement Marking event, where approximately 20 youth, ages 12 to 18, would participate in a hands-on painting activity. The purpose was to enhance the beauty of the Arts District, while engaging creative youth in the monumental public artwork.
The application further stated that it was their belief that “this playful artwork will give pedestrians and art enthusiasts another fun and colorful reason to visit Buckhannon’s growing arts district.”
In the application, it says that “so much of the effort of ART26201 is invested in reversing the widespread preconception held by our youth that West Virginia is just not cool enough to actually stay around. In short, many believe that only the losers stay and those with any talent leave our Mountain State as soon as they are able. Admittedly, many of our historic communities convey pale images that do not attract a youthful eye. With this program, we hope to repaint those unflattering images and overwrite those notions of poor opportunity.”
The application for funding also says through this project, they hope to repaint those unflattering images and overwrite those notions of poor opportunity and “build their appreciation for fun, colorful and creative opportunities that are sprouting up in and around the Buckhannon community.”
“We need to thank the West Virginia Department of the Arts, Culture and History for providing funding for the Traders Alley Pavement Marking event,” VanNostrand said. “This project would not have been possible without their support, and we are fortunate to have been funded.”