The village of Blanchardville will be getting new, fresh street light banners after the conclusion of the road construction project. Blanchardville Community Pride Inc. and new local business Wahl Signs and Graphics are collaborating with the Pecatonica Area School District on the project. BCPI also supported creating the old banners, which have suffered fading over the years.
When Blanchardville Community Pride Inc. President Paul Saether saw street light banners with student artwork on them in another community, he immediately knew the idea was perfect for the Pecatonica area.
Now, the idea is getting underway through collaboration between the Pecatonica High School Art Department, BCPI and new local business owner and Pec alum Mark Wahl as downtown Blanchardville gets closer to the end of its road construction project.
“It’s definitely to promote the school, to promote the school’s art and give those kids whose art gets chosen some local investment and excitement,” Saether said.
Pec Middle/High School art teacher Nancy Huffman is thrilled about the opportunity to look through bright, colorful and unique student artwork to be featured on some of the banners, which will be hung on new downtown Blanchardville street lights being provided by Alliant Energy. The banners, which will be paid for by BCPI, will replace the aging and faded banners that also were supported by BCPI long ago.
“I love it – that connection is important,” Huffman shared. “It’s so nice for the kids who are going to have a piece of art on Main Street. That’s huge. What I’m really excited about is there are going to be people – not only community people who will see these pieces of artwork but also people from all different communities and out of state.”
Mark Wahl, who just opened Wahl Signs and Graphics in March, is thrilled about the opportunity to collaborate with the school district and BCPI. A 2001 Pec alum, his new business assists clients with any signage or graphics needs, and he plans to donate a significant part of his services for the new banners, which is a priority for his business.
“I welcome it – I think it will be a lot of fun,” Wahl said. “It’s something I can do, and I’m excited to do it. This is my community.”
BCPI, Huffman and Wahl are working together to determine the best student designs to incorporate and how many – it is likely there will be a combination of those with student designs and others that have standard “Blanchardville” imagery. Huffman is starting to look through student pieces to get ideas rolling and anticipates some designs will utilize art with pointillism painting and paper quilling because they are bright and dynamic.
“Opportunities like this show students, ‘Oh, I didn’t know my work was that good,”” Huffman said. “It’s a way to turn their thought process to maybe ‘this isn’t so bad, and I am talented.”
The art department is thrilled to have yet another way to collaborate with the community. It also has student artwork featured on the walls of River Bend Cafe and regularly has seasonal items for sale at Bistro On Main through its Art Biz initiative. Some proceeds go to the student artists and another portion is invested back into the art department to support purchases of materials for future projects.
“Everybody benefits from Art Biz,” Huffman shared.
The banners are anticipated to be created and unveiled sometime this summer.
