An Edwin E. Thoreson Inc. crew worked with a variety of volunteers and workers from Jon Hilde’s Concrete Design and Landscaping to save pieces of the mural that was attached to the Cook County Whole Foods Co-op building which was torn down last week. Just where the artwork will end up is still up for discussion, but ambitious volunteers and professionals working together saved some history and memories. A new, bigger co-op building will be put up this winter in the same downtown location.
Attempts to save the four-season mural attached to the Cook County Whole Foods Co-op building in downtown Grand Marais didn’t succeed, but didn’t exactly fail, either.
“After a roller coaster month of off-and-on progress toward saving the mural, a team of workers was able to save pieces of it—maybe 12 to 18,” said Ann Mershon, one of many people who worked to preserve the 70-foot long, 14-foot high mural that was built largely by elementary students over a five-year period during the late ’90s and early 2000 under the direction of artist Kelly Dupre and Sawtooth Mountain Elementary teacher Jana Larson.
The saved pieces are now being stored at Jill Terrill’s store, The Garage, for safe-keeping until a new home for them can be found.
Never designed as a grocery store, the co-op building was too small and in too much disrepair to be fixed, so a decision was made to demolish it and build a new, larger, more efficient building in the same location. The estimated cost of $25,000 to remove and preserve the mural wasn’t in the co-op’s construction budget. However, the board of directors allocated $10,000 towards saving the structure.
Individual motifs were cut out while the mural wall was still standing. Workers carefully deconstructed the wall to save as many pieces of artwork as could possibly be saved.
Some late fundraising by Mershon and a loose-knit group of community members raised $4,205—not enough to save the whole wall. But a different approach was taken, and a crew from John Hilde’s Concrete Design and Landscaping cut out individual motifs and— working in conjunction with Edwin E. Thoreson’s crew, which was demolishing the building— saved a lot of the artwork. Jeff Kern, who also helped to raise funds to save the mural, helped with the labor.
“The bad news is that for a number of reasons, we weren’t able to save the entire mural, but we have some pieces that can be included in a future piece of art,” Mershon said.
While there are no firm plans yet on where the pieces will be displayed, Mershon said, “Our plan is to convene some local artists to come up with a design this spring.”
She said many people feel the art would be most visible in a downtown location, and several merchants have expressed interest in having pieces displayed at their stores. Just where they end up will be determined at a later date.
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