Public Art Celebrates Elys Past, Directs Future

Like many Western towns, Ely, Nev., has experienced major highs and lows thanks to the mining industry. Mining, primarily for copper, founded the town in the late 1800s and has long been its largest employer. But the whims of geology and commodities markets have also been its undoing on several occasions.  But rather than pack up and drift away, Ely citizens instead chose to express pride in the town in an unusual way: They painted the town with colorful murals.  

The project began in 1999 during yet another mining downturn. The town’s leading copper mine shut down — again — putting hundreds of employees out of work. Downtown shops closed and went dark, creating a depressing visage along Aultman Street, the main drag.  “When this happened, a thousand people left the community, and we were all devastated, just devastated,” said Virginia Terry, a lifelong Ely resident.

At the time it was unusual for a tiny, remote town to dive deep into public art, said Terry, president of the Ely Renaissance Society, a nonprofit founded around the mural project. But it proved vital to unite the town around its rich, shared history. And it helped citizens see the value in preserving what they had and hoping for a better future.  “Every year, we would do two or three murals, and we’d have to have fundraisers to do that,” Terry said. “At first, visitors were really more excited about it than the people living here. But after a couple summers, then the business people saw the advantage, and either did their own murals or gave money to get theirs done.” Today the society is raising money to refresh many of the murals with new paint after decades in the high-desert weather. It also plans at least one new mural downtown.   

A catalyst for the project 20 years ago was Margaret Bath, Terry’s sister-in-law and then owner of Economy Drug, the downtown pharmacy. She had recently traveled in British Columbia and saw a mural project in the town of Chemainus, launched by Karl Schutz, a German immigrant who launched a mural project in his adopted hometown, which was struggling as the logging industry declined.  When the idea of murals for Ely began to flower, Bath put up $5,000 to launch the effort and bring Schutz to Ely as an advisor on the local project. 

Margaret Bath died in 2016.  “She was a forward thinker and loved art and really did so much for the community,” Terry said.

The Renaissance Society settled on a theme that would celebrate Ely’s history as a melting pot for immigrants drawn from around the world to labor for the mining industry.  “We wanted to honor the people who came from different ethnic groups,” Terry said. “One of the things it did is that it made people excited that they were a community of these different ethnicities that were being honored.”  Schutz helped recruit noteworthy artists to paint Ely’s murals. He also advised Terry’s group to do as many murals as possible, spread throughout town, instead of putting all their effort and money into a single project. Willing property owners were recruited to make building walls available for murals. In time, more would follow.

  Today there are 20 murals in total, painted by a variety of artists in different styles. All are focused on the history of the town — mining, ranching, railroading and scenic beauty — with the cultural diversity of the community as a central theme. Experiencing all the murals makes for an excellent walking tour of historic downtown Ely.  “We hope they still honor the different ethnic groups that came into our community and learned to live peacefully together,” Terry said. “It tells you this community cares about who they are.”   

Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the project, the White Pine Tourism and Recreation Commission recently allocated $15,000 to expand public art in the community. With public input, it will decide how to allocate the money in 2020.  

For more information:

 History of the murals, Ely Renaissance Society

http://www.elynvarts.com/history-of-the-murals-sculptures-and-parks.html

Ely Art Walk

http://www.elynvarts.com/art-walk-map.html

Ely Mural Project, Great Basin Heritage Area

http://www.greatbasinheritage.org/ely-historic-mural-project