For their part, five local artists worked on a mural to beautify downtown Fort Scott, during the Fort Scott Clean-up Day on April 22.

The five artists began working on  Friday, April 19, work continued until Monday evening.

“This specific mural was designed to not only showcase the Bourbon County landscape, but be a beautiful backdrop and photo op next to the new arch welcoming visitors into Downtown Fort Scott.,” Kate Freeman, a member of the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Downtown Division, said.

“It took about a month, to locate a space, talk to all parties involved, create a design, and execute a plan,” she said. “I would like to thank the Bourbon County Arts Council for donating funds to purchase paint and supplies for the mural.”

The three sections of the mural are from actual photos from Bourbon County. “I used these photos as references for the sketch,” Freeman said.

“We worked on the mural for four days,” she said. “Each of us worked off and on taking as much time as we could spare on the days scheduled. This is a list of painters:  Kate Freeman, Katie Hueston,
Kadra Nevitt, Bre Eden, Hayden Travis, Macie Hueston and Kenlee Eden.

“It is always a great experience working with like-minded people who love doing their part to see Fort Scott flourish,” Freeman said. “It was wonderful to see what each artist brought to the table, you can definitely see a little bit of each person in the painting.”

The new Bourbon County landscape mural is located on Wall Street, across the street from the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce office at 231 E. Wall and just at the base of the welcome arch.

Bre Eden is an art teacher at Winfield Scott Elementary School and Hayden Travis is an art teacher at Eugene Ware Elementary School in Fort Scott. Travis said the school district let them off their teaching duties to do this community service project.

Katie Hueston and Kadra Nevitt are semi-professional artists and Kate Freeman is one of the owners of the local art gallery, The Artificers, and is an artist.

“This is my first year on the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce Board, and part of the Downtown Division, along with John Crain, Bailey Lyons & Cathy Bishop,” she said.