A diverse group of artists — many with Native American and Latino ties — has been selected to create four new murals to be displayed next spring at the historic City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse in downtown St. Paul.
A community task force organized by the Ramsey County Historical Society chose the artists after reviewing 20 applicants and interviewing nearly half of them.
The artists are the "Latinx Mural Apprenticeship Project" organized by Latino nonprofit CLUES; Emily Donovan, of St. Paul; Leah Yellowbird, of Grand Rapids; and Adam Swanson, who lives in Cloquet on the Fond du Lac Reservation.
City and county leaders last December directed the Ramsey County Historical Society to commission new art celebrating the people and progress of St. Paul and Ramsey County. The new works will hang in the council chambers alongside some of the original murals, 22 feet tall and 5 feet wide, painted by Chicago artist John Norton when the building opened in 1932.
"The selected artists have identified a variety of approaches to this project that are inclusive and representative of our community today," said Chad Roberts, president of the county historical society and chairman of the community task force. "We are honored to be working with these talented people."
Norton's four murals, painted in a style called WPA Moderne, were designed to show the growth of St. Paul and feature a voyageur, steamboat captain, rail surveyor and laborer.
But they have undergone scrutiny in recent years for their portrayal of people of color in what one St. Paul council member called "subservient roles."
The four prominent figures, all white men, tower over groups of people that include white laborers, black men loading cargo onto a river boat and two American Indians looking on as a white priest holds a cross. Few women are shown in the murals.
