Bangor could get another mural next summer, this time featuring marine life found in the Penobscot River.
Bangor Beautiful, a local nonprofit organization with the mission of improving the aesthetics of the city, asked city councilors permission to paint a mural on all four sides of the Kenduskeag Pump Station on the corner of Broad and Washington streets.
Bangor councilors voiced support for the idea for the project during a committee workshop meeting on Monday. The council is expected to give final approval for the mural in its meeting next week.
If given final approval next week, the mural would be the sixth one Bangor Beautiful has brought to the city. Most recently, the nonprofit hired a spray paint artist to create a two-story mural to adorn the side of 116 Hammond St. this past summer. Shortly before that, the nonprofit partnered with Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness to paint the city’s first ground mural on the corner of Hammond and Central streets.
Bangor Beautiful is collaborating with ecology and intermedia art graduate students at the University of Maine to draft a mural that highlights the importance of freshwater mussels and migratory fish found in the Penobscot River, especially where it meets the Kenduskeag Stream.
Jill Fedarick, a Ph.D. student in the University of Maine’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology, is leading the project.
Though the mural hasn’t been designed yet, Greg Edwards, Bangor Beautiful’s treasurer and secretary, said the piece will likely depict freshwater mussels and some endangered fish, such as Atlantic salmon and sturgeon.
The goal, Edwards said, is to draw people to the area and bring awareness to these species, which are endangered but play an important role in the river’s ecosystem. Freshwater mussels, for example, act like filters that can pull suspended solids, dangerous bacteria and heavy metals out of their environments.
“This is a whole new crossover of interested people and gives people a chance to learn about exciting things happening in the river,” Edwards said. “It’s an important but undervalued place in Bangor.”
Bangor Beautiful also plans to work with Bangor and Brewer high school students so they can learn about the ecology and participate in painting the mural.
The proposed mural would be roughly 200 feet long and 16 feet tall.
The location was chosen because the small city-owned building sits in the intersection that connects Bangor’s downtown area to the waterfront path and parks.
The mural is estimated to cost $7,500 to create, the majority of which will cover the cost of materials needed to paint the piece. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Atlantic Salmon Federation have signed on to be sponsors of the project, according to Edwards.
The organization plans to have sponsors cover the entire cost of the mural, according to Edwards.
University of Maine students will begin designing the mural in January and Bangor Beautiful plans to complete the mural in early summer 2025.
