Local artist looking for answers after downtown mural taken down
TOPEKA (KSNT) - Local artists are devastated following the sudden removal of a project they put several months of hard work into.
This is what the space currently looks like in downtown Topeka following the repaint.
The mural was located across from the TPAC and County Courthouse, on the east side of the Capitol Federal parking garage.
Multiple local artists put months into the planning and execution of the Wizard of Oz mural.
27 News met with one of the artists that worked on the project. She says everyone she's spoken to about the mural has been extremely upset, sad, and heartbroken to hear it's been taken down.
Late last week the artist walked by the space expecting to see the project, instead of finding an empty beige wall.
“It makes me sad that no more people will get to experience it," Painter on the project Sara Myer said. "I hope it doesn’t discourage other artist from trying to do more murals around town. With as frustrated as I felt for having my work erased without any notice, we still need more art. We cannot have enough art, especially in downtown, NOTO, all over Topeka.”
The abrupt removal left the artist with more questions than answers.
"I was even more confused when I pulled the original article from April of 2020," Myer said, "interviewing the CEO of Cap Fed in which he stated he was very excited to have this on the building, it meant so much to the community and Cap Fed, and he was hoping that generations would get to see it. You don’t get a lot of generations in two years and two months of time on a wall.”
Making the reveal more painful was the lack of communication with members who worked on the art piece. According to Myer, there was no heads up that their piece would be taken down.
While the loss of the art installation is painful, Myer said she's not letting it take down her motivation to bring art to Topeka.