City seeking federal grant to uncover second mural in council chambers

CEDAR RAPIDS - City officials are pursuing a federal grant to allow them to remove an overcoat of paint hiding another of the Great Depression-era murals that once adorned the former federal courthouse's large third-floor courtroom.

That courtroom now serves as City Hall's council chambers, and a mural on the north wall of the room was uncovered a year ago with federal funds as the City Council convened in the room for the first time.

A $50,000 grant being sought from the National Endowment for the Arts would assist in the restoration of the mural on the south wall of the room. The restoration could cost $100,000, city officials said in a memorandum to the council.

The murals are referred to as Works Progress Administration art, which was painted by artists employed by the federal government during the Depression.

The murals, which cover the tops of all the walls in the large room, were painted over, uncovered, and then painted over again in the 1960s when questions were raised about the quality of the art. The themes of the murals also had raised questions.

Mel Andringa, a Cedar Rapids artist and co-founder of Legion Arts, said he has heard no complaints about the art since the first of the four murals was uncovered last year.

The uncovered mural, which is on the wall behind the City Council dais, is something of “a political commentary” on “the mixed blessings” of civilization, Andringa said, from the suffering of American Indians to the use of slave and coolie labor to the arrival of the industrial era.

He said the mural on the south wall of the room, which is slated to be uncovered next, is a little harder to understand. It addresses archaeology, the introduction of agriculture, the making of a documentary film and other scenes.

Andringa thinks the uncovering of the murals is important for the community because the mural scenes provide a “extremely important historical balance” to the optimism of artist Grant Wood and his students, who he said were painting in the same era but capturing a “rearview” optimism of Iowa and America from an earlier time.

The city is working with the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art to apply for the Our Town Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, city officials said in a memo to the City Council.