Blaine City Council approves commission for downtown murals

Downtown Blaine will soon have more artwork adorning building walls after Blaine City Council voted 7-0 to create a commission bringing three murals to the city.

The ad-hoc arts commission, approved in a resolution during the March 22 council meeting, will serve as council’s advisory board for selecting artists. Each artist will propose at least three murals. The three murals with the most votes are expected to be installed before May 2022, according to the project’s timeline.

The murals will be installed to promote Blaine by the Sea, the city’s marketing program that highlights its maritime history. Mural examples outlined in city documents include artwork of the Alaska Packers Association, beaches, First Nations’ history, historic local industries, old downtown, the U.S./Canada border, music and maritime-related art.

According to the project timeline, the commission could have its first meeting as soon as early May. The public would likely vote on mural ideas in November through an online survey and murals would be installed between March and May 2022.

In the city council meeting, Blaine community development services director Stacie Pratschner said she’d look into making a survey option for those without internet after councilmember Charlie Hawkins raised concern about an internet-only survey.

Previously, at the January 25 city council meeting, councilmembers asked the Community Development Services Department to establish a mural commission. The Blaine Tourism Advisory Committee (BTAC) recommended in its March 9 meeting that council approve the resolution establishing the commission.

Murals for the city were recommended in 2001 from the Blaine Tourism Marketing and Development Plan.

The city of Blaine’s 2021-22 budget reserved $15,000 of lodging tax funds for the murals and city manager Michael Jones authorized an additional $15,000 of 2021-22 economic development funding to help establish the program, according to the resolution.

The commission will have five to nine members who have art backgrounds and serve one-year terms. Members will be appointed by Jones and voted on by council, according to the resolution.

A commission chair and vice chair will be elected during the commission’s first meeting.