Kropat: Community Mural just the start Sept 22 - 29, 2004 By JOHN SHERIDAN News & Public Opinion Photos by Ann Tormet Westerville Mayor Mike Heyeck speaks at the dedication of the Community Mural on East Main Street Saturday morning while members of the Heart of Ohio barbershop chorus perform in the background. With Westerville Mayor Mike Heyeck in period costume on loan from the Otterbein College Theatre Department, a community mural depicting a early 20th century Westerville streetscape was dedicated Saturday. The mural graces the West Main Street side of Amish Originals, 8 N. State St., adjacent to an Uptown municipal parking lot on the north side of Main. At about 20 feet high and 75 feet wide, the project took four months to complete and was painted by dozens of volunteers at throughout the summer. "The mural was a very wonderful opportunity that (Amish Originals co-owner) Doug Winbigler gave to create such a large piece of public art," said Renee Kropat. Kropat, proprietor of Gallery 202 Partners in Art designed and drove the project. The mural might be the largest piece of public art in Uptown, but it won't be the last, said Kropat, whose goal is to do at least two pieces of public art each year. She has already done pieces for the Mount Carmel St. Ann's Women's Pavilion Project and a fish mobile outside the hospital's emergency room. She also was involved with a student-mural for Pasquale's Pizza and Pasta House in Uptown. Part of the Community Mural located on East Main Street includes a depiction of the Westerville News & Public Opinion, one of more than 20 corporate sponsors of the public art project. The Community Mural had 20 corporate sponsors whose logos and names were strategically placed on the side of panel trucks, wagons, stands, and even newspaper boxes, where a Westerville News & Public Opinion headline declares: "Another 'Mad squirrel' attack reported" -- recounting a series of actual stories in 1996 that brought widespread attention to Uptown. Already there is interest in other projects, said Kropat. She's had five requests from other Uptown businesses and property owners for other public art projects. Over the winter she will do art work at the Hanby Arts Magnet Elementary School in Uptown. Any Uptown art project is done with the blessing of the Uptown Review Board. Kropat plans to have at least two projects ready to go by next spring. Future projects will likely be lighter on sponsorship, since they likely won't be as large at the mural, said Kropat. "We hope to make a variety of public art, such as mosaics and sculpture to fill in the nooks and crannies," she said.