Artist Carly Schmitt will get to create her mural after all.
The Vadnais Heights City Council on Tuesday night accepted a $12,395 grant from the Metropolitan Regional Council of Arts, paving the way for Schmitt to return to her hometown and create the mural around the fireplace at the Vadnais Heights Commons.
The project was dealt a blow March 1 when the City Council did not accept the grant. Mayor Susan Banovetz and Council Members Joe Murphy and Gerald Auge voted against the measure while Marc Johannsen voted for it and Lynn Kapaun was absent.
With Kapaun back in his council seat Tuesday and Banovetz voting in favor, the grant was accepted on a 3-2 vote.
Schmitt, who has been working in Germany the past three years, did mural painting in Seattle for five years after she graduated from Macalester College. She plans to return to Vadnais Heights and get to work this spring.
The Glassman Family Foundation is donating $6,100 for the mural project, in which people who live or work in Vadnais Heights will be invited to pick up one of 13,000 pre-painted 1-inch-square wooden tiles and adorn it with a personal mark, such as their name, initials or a symbol. Schmitt will then assemble the tiles to create a mural representing water and leaves.
TIM HARLOW
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