Get rocking for the Walldogs
IN ANOTHER YEAR DOWNTOWN
Plymouth will be going to the dogs — the Walldogs, that is.
But to make it happen, lots of people in Plymouth have to get rocking.
The Walldogs are a group of 160 artists from around the world who are scheduled to descend on Plymouth for five days next June, when they will transform the face of downtown by painting 15 historical murals on the sides of downtown buildings.
It will be a welcome addition to the two historical murals that already grace downtown — the rendering of Interurban Car No. 26 coming through downtown Plymouth on the side of the Sarah’s Garden store and the re-created Cream of Wheat flour advertising mural on the side of the Plymouth Historical Museum.
Such public artwork helps make any downtown a brighter, more attractive and more memorable location and destination, which is good for the economic vitality of the entire community.
Just imagine the impact and the appeal of more than a dozen such historical murals, celebrating many different events and people in the city’s history. It will have visitors coming to, and talking about, downtown Plymouth from all over.
To make it happen, though, will take considerable funding. The committee spearheading this undertaking has come up with a unique and colorful fundraiser — selling unique, handcrafted rocking chairs that can be decorated and personalized as the purchaser wishes.
The artisans at Wieser Cabinetry in Plymouth will create 40 of the white pine rockers, each labeled “Produced in Plymouth, Wisconsin,” and individually numbered. Local artists have volunteered to hand paint each chair according to the purchaser’s wishes.
Ten of the chairs will be purchased by the event organizers, then auctioned off just prior to the kickoff of the Walldog event next summer to raise additional funds.
The chairs will be instant keepsakes and will serve as a link to a large past of Plymouth’s industrial heritage, when it was a furniture-manufacturing center. And the proceeds will go to help tie the continued vitality of downtown and the Plymouth community with its rich, historical heritage.
The theme for next summer’s mural blitz is “The Walldogs Rock the Cheese Capital” and the chair sale is a chance for everyone to get things rocking early.
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