Crowdfunding campaign makes Travelers Rest mural a true community effort
From murals to sculptures, nothing makes the Upstate a more colorful place to live than its public art.
In Travelers Rest, the idea for a downtown mural started with an illustrative map of the city designed by artists and TR residents Jesse and Carissa Bowser. When someone mentioned that the map would make a good mural, the lightbulb went off, said Lacey Eibert Keigley, owner of Travelers Rest Here, an online platform featuring people and places in the northern Greenville County town made famous by the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
“Originally, we all thought we’d use the original map print as the guide and have that be the mural,” Keigley said. “We all loved the idea and the art, but the building’s shape just didn’t lend itself to that idea.”
The Bowsers came back with a new design called The Postage Stamp Mural to fit the size and shape of the outside wall of Verb Beauty Studio in downtown Travelers Rest. With a design and a location, the only missing ingredient was funding. That’s when the trio decided to launch a GoFundMe page and allow the project to become a true community effort.
“Art is one of those things that sometimes in a crisis gets put on the back seat and it shouldn’t,” said Keigley. “Like a lot of industries, artists have struggled during this pandemic, so it was fun to be able say, ‘we can afford to do this,’ and the community has responded.”
Fundraising for the mural began at the beginning of October, with only about $500 to go toward the project’s $6,000 goal. Work on the mural will begin soon and is expected to be completed in November, the artists say.
“Travelers Rest is an incredibly unique and authentic place. and getting to embody that in a piece of work is exciting,” Carissa Bower said.
Want to help? Go HERE to donate to The Postage Stamp Mural in Travelers Rest.
