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CITYSCAPE: Threatened Bella Vista mural may have law on its side
Artist David Guinn may file suit to protect the "Autumn" mural at Ninth and Bainbridge.
CITYSCAPE: Threatened Bella Vista mural may have law on its side
The Zoning Board of Adjustment issued a two-week hold today on plans to build a single-family home that would cover Bella Vista's beloved "Autumn" mural. In the meantime David Guinn, the muralist behind the beloved work at Ninth and Bainbridge, is looking to file a suit under the Visual Artists Rights Act, a federal law that allows an artist to take action against the destruction of his artwork, even of that work is no longer in the artist's possession. "I'm hoping the result would be either that the builder would not build there, or that he would pay the cost of re-creating the mural in another location," Guinn says.
More than 20 angry neighbors went to the ZBA to lobby against the house, but the mural's destruction is not a zoning issue and so cannot impact the board's decision.
Jennifer McCreary, director of communications for the city Mural Arts Program, hopes that the mural can be preserved there or at another location. In the past, builders have helped secure funding for displaced murals; Liberty Property Trust did so during the building of the Comcast Center.
McCreary notes the mural is part of an audio tour that draws some 20,000 visitors each year. "It's iconic in the neighborhood and also part of a four-part series, so it would be a shame to lose that," she adds.
Still, the artist's lawsuit is looking like a last-ditch effort, given that the community appears to have exhausted other means of stopping construction.
Dear David Guinn,
Please stop. Your ill-advised lawsuit, if it succeeded, would destroy the city's mural arts program. What kind of idiot developer would allow a mural if it prevented him from every building on the adjacent lot? I love your mural. It had a great run. I'd love for you to paint it again on another location. But stop.
Cheers,
David Goldfarb
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