El Dorado residents and visitors have enjoyed the beauty and community spirit two recent murals have brought to the downtown area, and now, the City of El Dorado has the opportunity to add a third mural through a $10,000 grant Experience El Dorado and the City of El Dorado received from the Kansas Creative Arts Commission for a mural and art project that has been named ElDo Plaza.
“This is a great opportunity for El Dorado,” said Javan Gonzalez, Destination Services Coordinator for Experience El Dorado. “We have received tremendous feedback from people who love the addition of the murals in El Dorado, so we are excited to add this new mural and art display in downtown El Dorado.”
ElDo Plaza is located at 110 W. First Ave., which was formerly a commercial building that was demolished for safety reasons. Now the goal is to beautify that area and attract more visitors and foot traffic to the area.
“The plaza will include a sculpture and a mural by a Kansas artist,” Gonzalez said.
Experience El Dorado is currently looking for experienced artists who are interested in the project. The goal is for this to be a community-based project.
“We will be holding a virtual ‘town hall’ to gather inspiration for the mural,” Gonzalez explained.
The town hall will be held at 1 p.m. on Feb. 2 on the Experience El Dorado Facebook page. To start the town hall meeting, Experience El Dorado will ask some questions to get the ball rolling. Users can then answer the questions or ask their own questions, which staff will be responding to live. Users also can share photos of themselves, their family, their favorite spots in El Dorado or even historic images of our community.
After the town hall, Experience El Dorado will compile the information and present it to the interested artists for a concept of what the mural will be. The Experience El Dorado Committee, a committee of citizens who give input on events, activities and tourism in El Dorado, will choose the artist for the project at their March 14 meeting.
“The beatification of El Dorado is an important aspect of bringing more visitors to our downtown area and increasing the amount of time people spend in our downtown,” Gonzalez said. “This is one way to increase the vibrancy and walkability of Downtown El Dorado, along with creating a higher quality of life for residents and a better guest experience for our visitors.”
Artists can apply by emailing jgonzalez@eldoks.com. Artist will be compensated for their work, time and concept up to $7,000.