New downtown Red Oak mural reflects on history and foreshadows the future

In coming weeks, the west wall at the southeast corner of Coolbaugh and 2nd streets will become a must-see destination as a committee within the Southwest Iowa Arts Council creates a new mural representing Red Oak’s past and future.
The Southwest Iowa Arts Council is a non-profit organization based in Red Oak that was established in 1977. Chairman Jim Hoskinson has been a member of the council for 18 years, and he is also the individual overseeing this new project.
Hoskinson said he has been an artist since he was a child. Though he has perfected the skill of creating portraits over the years, perhaps he is best known for the murals he painted at the Firehouse restaurant and History Center in town.
“It (painting murals) is a process unlike portraits that have to be very specific to what you’re painting or drawing,” he said. “There’s a lot more creativity involved with the mural and, of course, a lot larger scale.”
A few years ago, a new committee called the Red Oak Arts Destination (ROAD) emerged within the council. The commit tee was charged with overseeing the creation of this mural, which has been a work in progress over the last three years.
Hoskinson said the first step of this project was to determine a location for the mural to be installed.
“First of all, we have seven different locations that we were targeting,” he said. “This one (Coolbaugh and 2nd location) is the most critical and the most important for our endeavors, because it’s such a visual spot heading into the downtown area.”
Once the ROAD decided on the mural’s location, the committee began to sketch up potential designs.
“The design process has probably been two years in the making, starting with discussions and then trial and error with others that submitted their designs that didn’t fit the criteria that the committee was looking for,” Hoskinson said.
After getting an understanding of the type of design the ROAD was looking for, Hoskinson began working on his own designs, and the feedback he received was entirely positive. The final touches and unique spin incorporated within the mural’s design were added by the installation artists.
Once the installation process begins following the conclusion of Junction Days festivities, Edward and Sharon Manhart, the owners of Arbor Street Studios in Omaha, Neb., will begin installing the mural with the help of Josh Audiss.
“It (the mural) is titled ‘Studying Our Past, Looking to the Future,” Hoskinson said. “Given that Red Oak is basically known as the birthplace of the art calendar with the Thomas D. Murphy Company, we wanted to focus on that.”
According to Hoskinson, incorporating the art calendar design into the mural serves two purposes.
“One, it’s recognizing how important the Thomas D. Murphy Company was to the community and the developing of the community,” he said. “And also, it ties right in with being able to have a past and future using calendars.”
Hoskinson said the past three years of working on this project have been exciting, and he holds many fun memories of working with the ROAD as well as the installation artists. One memory he recalls is when the three artists attended a fundraiser the ROAD held for the mural project.
“They came into the fundraiser and were basically floored by the amount of community that were there and the support that they were giving,” he said.
Though the three primary installation artists were thrilled to work on this project from the start, Hoskinson said this community support elevated their excitement to get started.
“You could see it on their faces, and you could tell they were just absolutely thrilled to be a part of it,” he said.
As with all other community projects, the ROAD had to receive funding for the project before they could get started. Hoskinson said that the funding from this project was done through multiple individual donations.
“The largest part of it was from five specific foundations and groups,” he said. “The Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa is one, Iowa West Foundation is another, the Red Oak Hotel Motel Tax Grant, the Red Oak Rotary, and Houghton State Bank.”
Overall, Hoskinson is hoping that this new mural, which represents the rich history and bright future of the Red Oak community, will serve as “another focal point coming into town, and a bright and colorful welcome to both residents and visitors alike.”
Hoskinson estimated that the mural will be completed within the next few weeks. His hope is to have this project completed before the start of RAGBRAI, which will be in Red Oak in July.