The Furrow Magazine

Rural Lifestyle

Rural Murals

By Larry Reichenberger

Street art has gone country! From the facades of high end restaurants and boutiques in New York’s fashionable SoHo district, the plus-sized public art form is migrating to such rustic places as the side of the Agtegra Coop grain elevator in Faulkton, South Dakota or to a concrete wall on the south side of Shorty’s barber shop in Waukomis, Oklahoma. The trend is not only transforming rural infrastructure into sites of world class mural art, it’s also telling stories of people and places that serve to rekindle lagging pride while also spurring local business.

The 110-foot tall mural on Faulkton’s grain elevator (shown above) is a great example. “Some people thought we were crazy and wondered why would anybody want to put art on the grain elevator,” says Jodi Moritz, member of the Faulkton Area Arts Council. “Now, the elevator and the other murals in town are a source of pride, and the expected boost in tourism has proven to be true. That means an uptick in customers for local businesses.

The mural was painted by award winning Australian artist Guido Van Helten, who’s done several similar grain silo murals along Australia’s Silo Art Trail (read more later). Van Helten spent more than a month with farmers, ranchers and townspeople in Faulk County to get a feel for the community and formulate a design for the mural.