VALE – Residents and tourists will soon be able to learn more about each mural in town from their cell phone, thanks to a $3,000 grant from the Ontario Visitors and Convention Board.
The board approved the grant after the request in August from the Vale Heritage Reflections Mural Society.
The society will create a permanent audio tour of each of the more than 30 murals splashed across buildings in town. The new system could be operating by next year.
“I think it is a good thing. There is a lot more to each mural than just the picture,” said Todd Fuller, Vale city manager.
Fuller is also a member of the Vale Heritage Reflections Mural Society.
“It is an exciting project. When people go to Vale they will be able to download an app and listen to the history of each mural,” said
John Breidenbach, chief executive officer of the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce.
He said several community meetings in 2022 – including one sponsored by the Malheur Enterprise – spurred the idea for the app.
Each mural, said Fuller, has its own story.
“One of the artists painted her kids into it because she needed someone in the mural. There are also multiple students from past years in a lot of the murals,” he said.
Fuller said the group will to hire a contractor to help the mural society put the narrative together then help the city acquire the app.
He said visitors and residents will be able to download the app for free from VoiceMap onto their iPhones or Android devices. Fuller said a QR code will be at each mural where a resident or tourist that can scan by with a cell phone. The QR code will take a user to the free app. Fuller said Klamath Falls already has the system with “multiple audio tours.”
“When you are in the app you can do a search and then zoom in or out on the map,” he said.
For example, someone can download the app, find a mural they are interested in, click on it and hear an audio history.
“We came out pretty well on this and I think it will be very useful,” said Frank Yraguen, a member of the mural society.
The audio tour app project is the most recent one spearheaded by the mural society.
Last year, the society restored two murals. One is on the south wall of the Vale Liquor Store at East Washington Street East and North 13th Street and a second mural at the Vale Emma Humphrey Library on East A Street.
The murals were not repainted but replaced with a graphic representation of the original paintings.
The restoration of the two murals is part of an ambitious effort to renovate all 32 murals.
The first mural was painted in 1983 but over time they all suffered some degree of climate damage.
Now, Fuller said, the mural society is focused on renovating the mural on the south side of M&W Markets in Vale.
The cost to renovate it is $26,000, said Fuller. The mural society has made some progress towards funding the project, said Fuller.
“We’re still about $6,000 or $8,000 short of where we’d like to be,” said Fuller.
News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected]
EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM – Available for $7.50 a month. Subscribe to the digital service of the Enterprise and get the very best in local journalism. We report with care, attention to accuracy, and an unwavering devotion to fairness. Get the kind of news you’ve been looking for – day in and day out from the Enterprise.