The Arts – Outdoor

This week, we will take a look at some of the art we can find outdoors.

Perhaps the most iconic examples are the large murals in the downtown area.   There are several, spread from the “Palm District”, down Main Street, and even one across from my store on Grand Blvd.

One of my favorites is the one on Main, just east of US 19.  It depicts one of the fish camps that used to dot the Gulf just off-shore.  There used to be a dozen or so.  Time has taken its toll and now there are just a handful still standing.

Regardless of what you might think about private camps sitting a mile off-shore on submerged state land, they are a part of West Pasco’s heritage.  For me, it will be a sad day when a storm destroys the last of these camps and the only collective memory we have of them is this mural.

The mural on the front of the old bank building at the corner of Main and Bank has a three dimensional effect and features the faces of a number of people that many of us know or remember.  You might want to take some time to see how many people you recognize.

The one across from my store shows what it looked like back when there was a golf course around Orange Lake.

There has been some discussion with Verizon about painting a mural on the Verizon building that  would feature our downtown in the 20’s, including the railroad.  Things have never quite worked out, but maybe we will see a mural there one day.

I’ll let you explore the downtown to find the other murals.

During the “streetscape” work some years ago, the city installed dozens of concrete “benches” that were widely disparaged as “anti-terrorist barriers”, “coffins”, or worse.   The one thing that folks could agree on was that they were failures as benches.  They were too hot to sit on and literally hard as a rock.  While most of these nasty little boxes have been removed, there are still a number of them on the Main Street bridge.  Mercifully, Greater New Port Richey Main Street teamed up with the city and local artists to paint them.  The artwork varies in quality, but there are some very good pieces.   There is a cycle set up so that so many get sand-blasted and new artwork painted on them each year.   I’m sure you’ve seen them while driving over the bridge.  It is worth your while to find a parking place and take a closer look.

I wrote about the downtown detours a few weeks back.  The sewer repairs were completed ahead of schedule.  The Chasco Fiesta entourage will start arriving in a week.  I’m pleased to report that the Chasco folks made some minor adjustments to their plans to make sure that the growing number of businesses near the park will still have access to adequate parking.  Thank you Kelly Hackman and company.

Speaking of Chasco:  The Chasco Fiesta is a bit of a fixture in New Port Richey’s spring calendar and there are always lots of great music during the Fiesta.  Coincidentally, next week’s NPR Note will cover the musical side of the Arts scene in New Port Richey.  Feel free to drop me a note if there is a specific venue that I need to be sure not to miss.

Finally, I hope you will be able to join us at 11:00am this Saturday in Sims Park.  We will be having the official ground breaking for the park improvements that will start right after Chasco and be completed before Christmas.  I hope to see you there.

Rob Marlowe, Mayor