An artful debate: What's up next on the Waynesville Public art trail?

Feb. 28—Ten artists competed for the honor of having their work featured as the next installment on the Waynesville Public Art Trail. But in the end — there would only be one winner.

The artists took the stage before the Waynesville Public Art Commission this month to pitch their compositions for a new art piece that will crown the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center.

The competition was stiff, spanning artists from the West Coast to Detroit to here in WNC. Pieces ranged from a mosaic to sculptures — and a myriad of murals cast into symbolic designs.

The only criteria: the piece must celebrate diversity and reflect the history of the Pigeon Center, which served as a school for Waynesville's historically Black community before integration.

After artists made their pitches, the jury convened the following day to critique the pieces they'd seen and vote on a winner. It went to — drum roll please — muralist Kristy McCarthy of New York.

McCarthy proposed a wrap-around mural that incorporates symbols and visual metaphors to illustrate the past, present and future of the center.

"When I create art, usually I like to tell a story with images, and I like to do a lot of research and have a lot of connection with the community who lives and works around the mural," McCarthy said during her presentation. "I think it's really important that what you leave is a gift to the community and something that they feel ownership of and proud of."

The Public Art Commission had budgeted up to $35,000 for the design, fabrication and installation of a new piece along the Waynesville Public Art Trail. Of that, $15,000 came from a county tourism grant, $7,500 in donations and the remainder from still pending grants or reserves.

The discussion

However, the choice was not a slam dunk. There was considerable debate among the Waynesville Public Art Commission members on which curation would encompass the spirit of the Pigeon Multicultural Center and truly match the criteria they were looking for.

And the commission did not hold back on their critiques of the artists' designs.

They took into consideration all aspects of the presentations, down to the colors artists chose for their Powerpoint presentations — a foreshadowing of how well their aesthetics would translate to their finished piece.

Part of the discussion fell to the cultural representation of the piece. Art commission members debated whether selecting a Black artist superseded other considerations and analyzed which ethnicities should be portrayed in the art.

"According to the Pigeon Center, the majority of the children that are there are Hispanic," said C.J. Deering, art commission member. "So I think just focusing on African Americans is a little limiting. There are other people of color, it is a multicultural center."

Gregory Wheeler offered the perspective of the Black community and Pigeon Center board who had seen the artists' presentations the previous day. Wheeler said they favored an artist who had studied and incorporated themes from an oral history anthology called "Lift Every Voice," chronicling lives of Haywood County's Black elders.

It, too, was a mural, with a woman as the central focus of the design.

"For a lot of Black communities, women are the head of the community so to speak. And the people who started the school were actually two teachers, who were women," Wheeler said.

They also liked the inclusion of a quote from Georgia Forney's grandfather — a patriarch of the Black community — that reads "You're God's child too."

"People talked about how they loved 'You're God's child too'," Wheeler said.

However, Wheeler said there was also debate over whether the quote was inclusive of other religious denominations. The commission agreed with this sentiment.

"If we wanted a religious quote that would be all encompassing, we could say something like 'our religion is love', or something like that," said art commission member Vicki Mangieri.

Artists details

The Public Art Commission ultimately felt McCarthy's mural was more encompassing and representative. McCarthy's design has three sections depicting the past, present and future.

The mural wouldn't be painted directly on the building, but would instead be painted on panels and installed with industrial adhesive that adheres to the textures of the exterior brick wall.

She plans to collaborate with the community through a listening session on what features they would like in the mural. The mural would then be painted by the community during a 'paint party' sometime this summer.

"The benefits of doing this mural with a community engaged process is that the community can then participate in the design and painting of the mural. It will help people feel connected to the space and proud of what they've contributed," McCarthy said during her presentation. "This mural would last potentially decades, so it would be there for generations and also a sense of pride for the community itself."

Her design depicts a girl holding a photo of the 1957 graduating class of the former school and a stack of books including 'Lift Every Voice'. Wheeler said that he loved her presentation.

"I love that she could take us from Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington throughout history," Wheeler said, noting important Black figures represented in the mural. "I think the idea of doing that does tell a story. And that is all very sort of powerful."

McCarthy also included other symbols within the proposed painting, including flora and fauna from the area.

"I like how she incorporated so many elements that pertain not just to the Pigeon Center, but to the area. The butterfly, the mountains, the bird," Mangieri added.

What's next

The installment portion was a cause of concern, however. Assistant Town Manager Jesse Fowler led the discourse over whether a mural on the outside of the Pigeon Center would be detrimental to its designation on the National Historic Register.

Fowler said he would consult with the State Historic Preservation Office to see if it would be an issue.

The art commission unanimously voted to recommend McCarthy for final approval by the Town Council.