A final splash of color for Port

Downtown Port Washington is getting a lot more colorful this summer as the city’s three-year mural program nears an end. 

Artist John Kowalczyk completed his mural, which pays homage to the city’s fishing families, particularly the Ewig and Smith families, on the risers of the stairs between the city’s harborwalk last week. This week a mural is expected to be installed on the east wall of the Old Theatre Square building on Grand Avenue that houses Java Dock and other businesses.

The murals reflect pieces of Port’s history — in this case, the theater that was once in the building, Eileen Grace, who heads the project for Port Main Street Inc., said.

The mural will depict Feb. 24, 1929, when the first “talking” movie to be shown in Ozaukee County debuted there, showing a line of people waiting to get their tickets.

Many of those people depicted are past residents of the city, Grace said, including four members of the Roob family, the original owners and managers of the theater.

Others depicted on the wall include Adolph N. Ansay, Jon Neitzke, Sam DeMerit and Nick Didier.

The painting by Kelly Meredith was done on panels that will be installed on Thursday, Aug. 7.

And the following week, the community mural, “Pages of Port,” is expected to be installed on the east wall of the Chocolate Chisel building on Grand Avenue.

A statue created by John Reichert, an artist and owner of the Chocolate Chisel, is of a boy and girl sitting at the base of a tree depicted in the mural. The children are reading a book as the pages fly out of it.

Each page will depict 12 themes, including historic events in the city, industries that shaped the community, well known buildings and notable women in the city, Grace said.

One piece, she said, will depict Franklin Street today and in the past.

Among those who created large pieces of the mural are Sherri Kultgen, Rodrigo Santamaria and artists at Prime Horizon, Inc., Katie Feyereisen and students from Port Washington High School and St. John XXIII Catholic School, Colin Binsfeld and members of the Port Washington Senior Center and Harbor Campus.

Other local artists participating include Madisyn Phillips, Amy Boehm, Rebecca Hust, Elizabeth MacCrimmon, Kaylee Goodman, Lauren Kultgen and Wendy Braam.

The artists worked extensively with the Port Washington Historical Society on the mural, Grace said.

The mural consists of 14 pieces painted on Polytab mural cloth that will be installed over several days.

The mural cloth was also used by Kowalczyk as he created his piece on the west slip stairs, Grace said.

“He’s very, very talented and responsive,” she said of Kowalczyk. 

This is the third mural done by Kowalczyk for the Paint on Port program. The others include a piece on East Main Street on the building housing LemonZello and a four-sided piece on the pump house in front of the Newport Shores building on Lake Street.

This year’s Paint on Port program began in June when James Barany, a professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, created an homage to the city’s nautical heritage, from Indigenous people canoeing to the tall ships that once plied the lake to the sport fishermen of today, on the Jackson Street retaining wall east of Franklin Street.

“It’s really a beautiful piece that took him quite a while to do,” Grace said.

This is the third and final year of the Paint on Port program, and a celebration to mark that will be held in Rotary Park from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31.

Grace said it’s important to mark the end of the program.

“I think the biggest thing about this that I did not expect is how much the community has come together with this,” she said. “So many people have gotten involved in different ways — hosting the artists, making donations, participating in Paint and Sip programs.

“It became much more than painting murals on walls. The pride you hear in people saying, ‘I did some of this.’ It’s extraordinary.”