A few days ago, the Joplin Globe reported about a local tile company that is offering to install Route 66-related murals at Seventh and Main in Joplin, Mo., where two historic alignments of Route 66 meet.
Today, the president of the Images in Tile USA, Paul Whitehill, sent more information about the project. First, here are artist’s renderings of two murals his company will install on the Pearl Bros. hardware building:
And here is a mockup of what the murals will look like on the building:
Whitehill says the tile that will be used won’t fade in sunlight, resists graffiti, and last 50 years. The company is seeking sponsorships to help cover the project’s $63,000 cost.
Images in Tile recently completed several murals at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., among other projects.
Also today, Sam Sturgis, director of sales in marketing at Images in Tile, said in an email: “We are currently working 5 mural projects along Route 66 as our goal is to produce 66 tile murals on Route 66.”
It is hoped to have the Joplin murals in place by the International Route 66 Festival on Aug. 1-3.
Why don’t they just get an artist to paint it on the whole building for one-tenth the cost?
Painted murals are already found in a number of places on Route 66. However, sun and weather fade them, and they constantly have to be retouched or repainted entirely. They can also be destroyed by vandalism. Tile offers an alternative that, while more expensive up front, over the long run may be more cost effective as well as weather and vandal resistant.