A new mural in Wheaton illustrates the diversity of our community

Sometime late in June, I drove south on University Boulevard from Veirs Mill Road and came to a stop across from Elbe’s Beer & Wine, a neighborhood institution that had suddenly shed its skin: a massive, vibrant mural had appeared on its West-facing wall seemingly overnight.

In truth, the mural was the result of two years of work, hours upon hours of unpaid volunteer labor, a community town hall meeting and 1,500 e-mails.

“Our mission is to bring the community together with art,” says Wheaton Arts Parade director Dan Thompson. The organization, named for its yearly parade, is operated in the free time of a few charitable individuals. Thompson himself built many of the parade floats featured each year.

“Sometimes we get high schools or other arts organizations,” he explains, but connecting to the Wheaton community has largely been an uphill battle. “We’re an arts and entertainment district but we don’t have a lot to show for that.”

It’s surprising, then, that the mural was not the idea of Wheaton Arts Parade, but the community. Elbe’s is a local institution, family-operated since 1951. The building’s facade is an artifact of neighborhood history, harkening back to a time before the skyline was dominated with luxury apartments. Thompson explains, “The owner and I often talk about Wheaton. I came in there one day and he asked, ‘how can we get a mural?’ … We looked at his wall and it was perfect. I took a lot of pictures of the site and decided to apply for a grant.”

The Wheaton Arts Parade website describes the selection process: “WAP assembled an advisory committee of businesses, residents, artists, and the property owner. Informed by the ideas generated by the community in public sessions and online, WAP issued a "Call to Artists" that attracted applications from 45 mural artists across Maryland.” The community emphasized a desire to see Wheaton’s history and culture reflected in the mural.

“One was done by a great muralist but it didn’t seem to capture Wheaton,” says Thompson. After the advisory committee selected their finalists and awarded each with a $1,000 grant to draft a design, the community was allowed to share their opinions through the Facebook group Wonderful Wheaton and a survey sent out in the Wheaton Arts Parade newsletter with over 1,500 recipients.

Unfortunately, the application process was slowed by a lack of consensus about the design and commitment to its completion and maintenance. Thompson explains, “we applied for a grant with the Maryland Arts Council, and then the community asked for a revised design… we were denied the grant because we didn’t show the revisions or have a plan for how to maintain it.”

“We waited a year to reapply and put money aside in an escrow for repairs … but when we applied the next year, we were only provided $30,000.”

With a deficit of $10,000, Wheaton Arts Parade called on the community to help fund the project. Through a page on their website, a notification in their newsletter and a post on the Wonderful Wheaton group, the organization was able to raise over $7,000 from local businesses and residents.

Even with a truncated budget, the mural stands as an example of Wheaton’s vibrant community, both in its artistic depiction of the neighborhood’s history, and in the democratic, transparent process of selection and fundraising that led to its completion.