The Community Cycling Center (CCC) has just announced that the beautiful new mural painted on the side of their retail store on NE Alberta Street is finished! In honor of everyone that made it happen, the CCC plans to hold a party and celebration on Sunday, September 10th from 3-6PM.
The whimsical and vibrant mural was created by local artist Robin Corbo and made possible by a $15,000 grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). Corbo has worked since July with her crew of volunteers to complete the 1,100 square foot painting. Here’s more from the CCC press release:
“The colorful mural covers the wall of the Community Cycling Center’s retail bike shop, located at 1700 NE Alberta Street. The mural details a bike parade of safe cyclists. Kids, families, pets and onlookers smile at the neighborhood. The mural reflects the spirit of the Community Cycling Center, where cycling is at the heart of a vibrant and safe community.”
It’s a tremendous mural and I recommend everyone ride over and see it up close and in person.
A very hearty congratulations and thank you to the RACC, Robin Corbo, her volunteers and all the CCC staff for giving us such a tremendous gift.
Photo: Community Cycling Center
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So cool. I love my neighborhood 🙂
erm… $15,000 for a mural?! You seriously telling me in a town with huge homeless issues, white cops shooting black people on a regular basis, and all sorts of other problems, this is the best way that we could spend $15,000 is on a picture on a side of a BIKE STORE?!
How many bikes could have been purchased with that money for kids? Geeez, what a waste of money.
Vladislav, with all due respect to your comment, the money was given to the artist by the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
The RACC does not exist to buy bikes for kids, work with the homeless, or solve law enforcement problems.
They are soley in the business of funding public art projects like this one.
Vladislav needs to spend more time looking at art. Art changes the world too, Vladislav – good works come in many forms.
Just looking at that mural makes me smile – worth every penny to me. What a great celebration of life.
It’s amazing! I love riding by it to and from work everyday. Thanks to all the people that made it happen.
That’s $13.64 per square foot. What a deal! Money well spent, in my opinion.
I don’t know. 15k is a lot of money, but I must say that is one of the finest murals I’ve ever seen!
We’re excited about the mural here at the CCC. It’s a burst of bright color and warm energy… and something we never could have afforded ourselves. It means alot to us that other non-profits, like the Regional Arts and Cultural Council, are around to help make Portland an even more beautiful place.
We hope to see you this Sunday 9/10 between 3-6pm to get a close-up look, listen to some music and thank Robin and her team for their incredible work. 1700 NE Alberta Street.
15k is around half of what one space in a new high-capacity parking garage costs.
$15k may seem like a lot – but really it’s a long-term investment in the neighborhood by RACC. That mural should last many, many years hopefully and make a meaningful statement that the Alberta neigborhood supports biking and walking. As well, I think with more condos and Pearl-esque developments occurring to make our city more “urban”, murals like this help soften the grayness of concrete and cement. and, it supports a local artist, too, which keeps the money in the area.
Absolutely beautiful! It’s helped turn a blandscape into a landscape!
If Vladislav is really so concerned about how money is spent, he should consider paying more than just-slightly-above-minimum-wage for his office assistant position. I mean jeez, $8 an hour for the workload you ask? People in glass houses…
just to add that the amazingly beautiful mural depicts local personalities of the community, including cyclists are no longer with us (note the flag with the constillation orion). it is a wonderful addition to portland. thanks, robin (who also is an amazing asset to the local homeless community in the wonderful advocacy work she does with youth).
I do not oppose spending on art, in fact I think it is a great idea to do so. However, I do oppose fiscal irresponsibility, and this seems like the artist walked off with a nice pile of cash that seems like it may have been more than market rate.
Having hired a number of artists over the years for various projects, I know how wildly the rates can vary. This painting, while beautiful, seems to have been… excessively well paid for. I am not sure where the RACC gets its money from, but if it is tax dollars, this seems quite excessive.
Again, I have no opposition to spending money on art. It is a good idea to do so. I just really think you need to be responsible about how you spend money, particularly tax dollars. The price tag sure seems excessive.
As for the comment of what I have paid my own staff for SEiM — it is merely a function of revenue vs salaries, and something that will drastically change as we scale again next year. I agree that $8 is not a living wage, but then again this is Portland, a town not exactly known for its great job market or high salaries. 😐
Which brings me back to the point of questioning the $15,000 price tag given that there are plenty of starving artists in this town who would gladly work for far less.
Just my $0.02. To be clear though, I do *not* oppose spending on art and really think it is great. Just the tag seems a bit… excessive, especially if it was tax dollars.
Ok, let’s not kid ourselves about fiscal responsibility when it comes to art. Art is so subjective, the money spent will always cheese someone off and for those who moan, “My taxes! My taxes!” I say shaddup with all the sarcastic politeness I can muster.
We don’t live in a society where the wealthy pay for and present art to the masses because it is beautiful. That seemed to die, ironically enough, with the beginning of monopoly busting. Those who were the most ruthless in business seemed to accumulate enough wealth to take care of themselves, their progeny for the next 20 generations or so, and a huge arts and sciences endowment. Bill Gates is the closest we have to a Carnegie or Rockefeller and he ain’t so big on the purty stuff.
So, a while back, some lawmakers figured feeding the starving artists was a good idea and made it a requirement that a certain percentage of the money used in public capital improvement projects, like buildings, be spent on art. If you happen to think spending on art is wasteful, take heart, it’s probably less than a penny a year for you, but I’ll round up if you want your penny back.
Given the time it took to complete the mural, cost of supplies and the payment of a living wage to the artist for her time, $15,000 is a pretty darn good deal. Save the “My taxes! My taxes!” for your legislator, who just might be all that concerned about your penny. 😛
I completely respect Vladislav Davidzon’s concerns about the cost of financing public art. There’s always something worthwhile that would benefit from increased or continued funding, but Robin — who lives in a group house, rides a bike to work, and doesn’t own a car — was not exactly enriched by this commission. The money for painting the mural (once the materials, equipment, scaffolding rental, et al., was covered) was spread out among Robin and at least three other compensated artists on the mural project. For the execution, she paid herself the same hourly wage she paid them. The time she spent developing and refining the design, and coordinating the dozens of volunteer artists and other helpers, was pretty much pro bono.
I was a volunteer painter for the mural and the experience game me and dozens of volunteers from the community a great experience and skills that will help me with future mural work.