Take your places — action.
Ovation Television, based in Santa Monica, Calif., landed in Lyons Monday, May 17 to shoot footage of Mural Mania for their production of “The Scenic Route.”
“It’s very exciting for Lyons,” said Jerry Ashley, manager of Lyons Main Street program. “Lyons has been ignored for far too long. There’s a rich cultural heritage here. We’d love to share it with anyone who would like to see it.”
Mural Mania will receive worldwide attention, when film for “The Scenic Route,” airs mid August.
“We were looking for interesting art and culture projects, something on a large scale in upstate New York, something within a day's travel distance of New York City,” said Erin Germain, producer.
It’s a new network, said Germain, a couple years old.
Germain discovered Mural Mania online.
“The show is about finding interesting cultural destinations,” said James Tooley, executive producer. “The community aspect of Mural Mania is most appealing to us. It went beyond one artist and one mural and got the entire community organized.”
That is volunteerism at its best, Ashley said.
“A lot of what is happening in the canal villages is due to volunteer effort,” he said.
Mark DeCracker, of Lyons, the originator and momentum behind the project, and his friend, Noel Dobbins, attended a mural dedication in 2007 in Weedsport.
“‘Wouldn't it be neat, if 10 years down the road, there were 50 miles of murals?’ I asked,” said DeCracker.
Now, three years later, with the painting of the Macedon mural, the largest mural trail in the world, 75 miles from Camillus to Macedon, has come to fruition.
“To quote Noel Dobbins, who died October 2007,” said DeCracker, “‘Some day Mural Mania will be nationally known.’”
That time has come.
A host driven show, every episode of “The Scenic Trail” is different and based around the road trip adventures of host David Keeps, who writes about architecture, people, places and cultural events.
“It’s (the show) different in that it’s about the actual physical travel, the places we stop,” said Keeps, who also writes for “Travel and Leisure Magazine”, “not just the destinations. We left the cities and the museums. It’s more about the undiscovered areas.”
Mural Mania will be part of a series on larger-than-life and community supported art, featured with The Big Draw in the Bronx, where well-known artists were hosted and the community was invited to join them in drawing in public gardens and parks, as well as Storm King Art Center, a sculpture garden about half an hour outside New York.
“It was fantastic,” said Pat Alena, known locally as Peppermint Patty, who was filmed inside the Hotchkiss building giving a tour. “David Keeps asked questions about peppermint history. We did a little skit with one of the crew, which led into the introduction of Mark DeCracker and Mural Mania.”
Cameras rolled, as DeCracker and Keeps walked along the east side of the Hotchkiss building, then west toward the mural painted by James Zeger, of Sodus, which is right on the canal trail.
“It’s a great opportunity as an artist starting out to get my art shown to the community and nationally,” said Zeger.
I feel fortunate to be part of Mural Mania, said Dawn Jordan, mural artist for the Hotchkiss building mural, as well as murals in Port Byron, Weedsport and Jordan.
“The longer this trail becomes, the more chance we have of becoming the state of art,” said DeCracker, who recently presented a program on Mural Mania at the Glens Falls Library, where interest in painting art there and near lake Champlain is building. “They want to feature art in the inner harbor in Buffalo.”
Murals in British Columbia attract 400,000 visitors a year, he said.
“It’s (the filming) great,” said Jordan. “It’s bringing Lyons to the forefront. Mark has worked really hard to get these murals done. I’m glad the village is being recognized.”
