Mural Project is a true Community Project

You may have noticed the three new murals painted on the businesses in downtown Townsend.  While Missouri Valley Marketing commissioned the murals, this project was a true Townsend community project!

In March of 2020, Missouri Valley Marketing invited members of Townsend Rotary, Broadwater County Development Corporation (BCDC), Montana Business Assistance Connection (MBAC), Townsend Area Chamber of Commerce, Radersburg Historical Preservation (RHPI) and Broadwater County to a series of meetings with 2 professional marketing experts from Helena. The purpose of the meetings was to determine how to improve tourism in Townsend and Broadwater County.

The top priority project identified by the representatives of all the organizations was to use artwork to beautify our downtown area.  We decided that murals were the most effective way to start implementing artwork into downtown Townsend.

Missouri Valley Marketing was the coordinating group that raised money, commissioned the mural artist and managed the project; but, many people and organizations were involved in making this happen.

MVM would like to thank Sophie Mathis for spending most of this summer painting three exceptional murals on the Mint building, the Lakeside Distillery building and JL Wrights Trading Post building. Working in brutally hot conditions, Sophie created three beautiful murals for us.

The murals would not have been possible without financial support from the Broadwater Community Foundation, Broadwater County Development Corp (BCDC) and the Montana Community Foundation (via the MSU Extension “Reimaging Rural” project).

MVM President Nichole Brown arranged for the use of the Trailhead Church scaffolding.  Without the scaffolding we would not have been able to power wash, prime and paint the Lakeside Distillery building!

Pat Plantenberg and the Townsend Tree Board generously allowed us to use their water tank to power wash the buildings.

Several individuals donated their time and effort to this project:

Pam Sample donated a lot of time and effort in priming walls, coordinating with the artist and local businesses and applying UV protection to the murals after they were completed. 

Keith Kirscher brought his power washer and donated his time and effort in power washing all the walls that were used to paint the murals.

Pam Sample, Keith Kirscher, Ross Johnson and Gary Richtmyer all donated their time to help prime the walls for painting.

We would also like to thank Jake Balliew (Lakeside Distillery), Lana Prevel (Mint Bar and Café), Judy and Larry Wright (JL Wright’s Trading Post) for allowing us to put murals on their walls.

Thank-you to everyone that contributed to this project!