— Muskogee Area Arts Council is seeking help from the public for downtown mural projects.

A mural featuring scenes of Muskogee’s history will be damaged in spots as the building on which it is painted receives “much-needed” repairs. The mural is in the park between the Square Deal Music store and Bank of America on Broadway. It was painted in 2001.

Volunteers and donations will be needed to fix the mural after the work is done, said MAAC President Dr. David Jones.

The council is preparing to replace the cow mural on the BEST Center parking garage on Main Street in April, he said.

“It will be wild mustangs, and right now we’re trying to get donations,” Jones said.

Jones said the school district owns the parking garage and is helping do the preparation work for that project.

“That’s how we normally try to do those type of projects,” Jones said. “But the repairs on the Broadway mural are definitely not in the budget right now. We get $5,000 from the city per year, and that’s to fund any arts related project the community would like to do. So right now, that’s not in the budget at all.”

The wall on which the Broadway mural is painted is pock-marked with fist-sized holes where the joints between rocks and brick have deteriorated, so the building owner has asked a contractor to patch them.

“We’re doing the patch work as neatly as possible,” said owner Mike Davis. “But we’ve got water running inside the walls. It’s just much-needed upkeep. I don’t know that it’s been done in many years.”

The painting was extensively repaired two years ago after large chunks of plaster fell off the wall.

The 2010 rehab work cost $6,000 and was done by the Muskogee Area Arts Council, volunteers and the former building owner.

At the time, the loose plaster was removed from large parts of the wall and the mural was repainted directly on the brick and rock.

Those who are interested in helping with either mural can attend MAAC’s regular meeting at 5 p.m. March 26, at McEntee’s on the corner of Broadway and Third Street.

Reach Wendy Burton at (918) 684-2926 or wburton@muskogeephoenix.com.

If you go



WHAT: Regular meeting of the Muskogee Area Arts Council.

WHEN: 5 p.m. March 26.

WHERE: McEntee’s, corner of Third Street and Broadway.

INFORMATION: maacok.com.