By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The logo for the 2015 Walldog art event was revealed at a ceremony in front of Delavan City Hall on Thursday.
The Walldog committee whittled the choices down to two and the public was allowed to vote on the final selection. The logo that was selected was the one with the circus theme that included a circus wagon and the slogan “The Greatest Walls on Earth.”
The Walldogs are an international group of sign painters, graphic artists, and other talented individuals who come together each year to transform a community with their artwork. They will be in Delavan from June 24 to 28, 2015, and will paint 18 murals mostly in the downtown area meant to capture the sense of nostalgia and history of the community.
City Administrator Denise Pieroni said 30 to 35 potential locations for the murals have already been identified. Pieroni said the committee will negotiate with selected property owners to ensure it retains the ability to maintain the murals in a way that does not impede the operation or growth of the business. Pieroni said the murals should last up to 50 years if properly maintained.
Pieroni said fundraising and an auction that will be part of the Walldog activities in June 2015 is expected to raise the required funds to seal the murals every five to 10 years. No tax money will be used for the maintenance.
Pieroni said the Walldog event will have many benefits to the city.
“It will bring people to the community,” she said. “Not only the artists themselves but also many people who want to watch them and participate in the related activities.”
Pieroni also said that many events end with nothing tangible left behind. She said this event will result in 18 large public art images that can be used as a tourism tool and use public art to enhance economic development.
“We will have them for years to come to promote the community, its heritage and its history,” Pieroni said. “I am excited about it.”
Pieroni said other communities that have hosted the Walldogs have said they would do it again and called it a very positive community project.
Several potential themes for the murals are under consideration and will be presented to the artists to choose from when they arrive. Some of those themes include the circus, clowns, Delavan’s history as an arts colony, the Temperance Movement, ballroom dancing, area resorts, area industry, the lakes and actors born in the area.
Pieroni said a nice group of supporters were present at the unveiling of the logo. She said Aldermen Ryan Schroeder and Chris Phillips and representatives from the city, the Delavan-Delavan Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, the Delavan Downtown Business Association, and the Friends of the Phoenix Park Bandshell were there in addition to members of the general public.
The logo will be used on all promotional materials for the event including spots on two existing billboards along Interstate 43 that should be added within the month. Pieroni said the logo will also appear on other event publicity, the city website and t-shirts made for the event.
Pieroni said Brad and Kit Bandow, owners of Brushfire Signs in Williams Bay, are Walldogs and will coordinate the event.
“We will have 150 to 300 artists,” Brad Bandow, a Walldog for 18 years, said in September when planning for the event began.
Bandow participated in his first Walldog meet in Belvidere, Ill., in 1997 and also took part in Walldog events in Plymouth and Chippewa Falls.
He said artists come to the events from around the world including Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Greece and Canada. Bandow said the artists catch up and talk about past meets.
“It’s like a family reunion on steroids,” he said. “It’s like nothing anybody has experienced before until you go to one.”
Bandow said after artists receive their subject matter, they typically do additional research and sometimes focus on something out of the ordinary that even local weren’t aware of. The artists create a mock-up of their painting with colors and present it to a local board.
“Since these people are professionals – this is what they do for a living, usually the artwork’s accepted as is,” he said. “They’re pretty spot-on.”
