Thanks to the efforts of local graffiti artists, community volunteers and high school students, a 115-year-old bridge in south Minneapolis is getting a makeover.
Built in 1908, the bridge is part of the final stretch of a railroad that parallels the Midtown Greenway before crossing the Mississippi River. Two 80-foot murals will connect the Longfellow and Seward neighborhoods — and depict the history of the area.
The project, underway this month, is led by 36th Avenue Revitalization and Transformation (ART), a group of Seward and Longfellow community members who wanted to do something about the "eyesore" of a bridge — as project manager Jack Becker calls it — that spans 36th Av. S. between 27th and 28th streets.
The group is getting help from students in a public art class at Hiawatha Collegiate High School who learned from and worked alongside artists with SPRAYFiNGER, a graffiti arts community founded by Peyton Scott Russell.
The students helped research the history of the bridge site and the neighborhood, including its indigenous roots and landmarks. For the final project, students decided on a collage depicting youth and elder generations, the Mississippi River, local architecture, native plants and maps of the neighborhood.
They spent about 20 hours in after-school workshops developing design skills and using stencils and spray paint. As the project has progressed, the students have worked on the murals daily.
"Now, it's go time; the mural's happening," said visual arts teacher Derek Davidson, who works with the students. "It's all hands on deck, you know. Every hour we can spare, we're out there."
Davidson said that while many of the art students are from south Minneapolis, the largely Hispanic school community differs from the majority white population of surrounding neighborhoods.
