Visit Owensboro President Mark Calitri asked City Commissioners Tuesday to contribute $8,500 to the downtown Kentucky Mirror Mosaic project. City officials didn’t confirm whether they’d contribute that amount — the last of the project’s needed funding — at Tuesday’s meeting, saying they’d like to know how much is being contributed by other entities before they commit.
“I need exact numbers of who’s doing what, and then maybe we’ll take that under advisement, so this can be a community project and not just an Owensboro project,” said Mayor Tom Watson.
As commercial artist Gary Bielefeld and Visit Owensboro work to remove the original glass from the downtown Kentucky Mirror Mosaic, he announced Tuesday that the restoration project will look very similar to the original 110-by-43-foot mosaic, but will include blue and white LED lights that surround the Kentucky-shaped project as well.
“As you know, the downtown area is key to Owensboro’s economic development,” Calitri said. “The question is, ‘It it worth replacing and what’s the ultimate cost?’”
Calitri and Bielefeld said they had traveled to Franklin, Tenn. and had found that Franklin had 100 percent occupancy in their thriving downtown, believing that the mosaic project, and projects like it, could greatly contribute to Owensboro’s downtown.
“We want to continue building the positive art scene we have, and it would help us attract potential visitors as well,” he said.
Calitri said the cost of Owensboro’s project would actually be much less than the $40,000-$80,000 that a project of its nature typically costs because of broad public and private support.
“Daviess County Fiscal Court will [pledge $2,500], the neighborhood alliance has contributed monies, the CVB will contribute monies, and we’ll pay additional monies to have the outline of the mosaic lit,” Calitri said. “And Gary has a slew of other corporate sponsors and volunteers to help do the project as well.”
Some pieces of the original mosaic, which was created 38 years ago, have broken and suffered due to a chemical reaction between the silver and the glue used to piece the mirrors together. Now a protective element will be added to keep that from happening.
“What caused it to fail before won’t happen again,” Bielefeld said. “I never expected it to be up there for 38 years. A lot of people were going, ‘We want the mirrors back up there.’ It’s an icon.”
The downtown neighborhood alliance approached Bielefeld about helping with the project, he said. He and a crew of volunteers will be putting many of the original pieces of the mirror back onto the mural.
The glue and glass will raise the Kentucky mosaic from the wall’s surface a small amount, and the blue and white LED lights will be tucked right into the space between, Bielefeld said. He expects this project to take four months from start to finish.
“There’s already a star that’s copper-colored [to represent Owensboro], but we’re taking every bit of that off and putting it back on new,” he said.
