CALDWELL, Idaho — The City of Caldwell wanted a way to showcase all the great things about the city and the state of Idaho through a first-ever large-scale mural.
The mural will be painted near the new downtown apartment in Caldwell by Portland artist Yulia Avgustinovich. The large mural will showcase aspects of the Caldwell area, such as agriculture and animals.
“I was very excited,” said Yulia Avgustinovich, an artist from outside the area. “I was excited to come back to Idaho.”
Avgustinovich, an artist originally from Belarus, now living in Washington D.C., has done some cool artwork for another city in the Treasure Valley.
“I painted a mural in Boise,” said Avgustinovich. “It’s on the Jefferson building in downtown near the city.”
That mural caught the eye of the city of Caldwell.
“So, we were just blown away by what she had designed and what she had put together,” said Steven Jenkins, the Economic Development Director for the City of Caldwell. “So, it’s a pretty easy sell for us, quite frankly.”
Jenkins says they were also impressed with Avgustinovich’s design proposal for Caldwell’s first large-scale mural outside the new apartments near Indian Creek Plaza.
“This artist is from outside our area, and she was able to incorporate some components of Idaho the city of Caldwell felt were very interesting and intriguing to not just our history but the future of where the city’s going,” said Jenkins.
“There is a coyote, and it’s a mascot of the College of Caldwell. Also, there a lot of agriculture, small family farms, a lot of wineries,” said Avgustinovich. “So, I wanted to represent agriculture of this area through sunflowers, corn, hops, grapes, pumpkins, and just nature, birds and deer.”
This project includes multiple murals. Additionally, the City of Caldwell intends to utilize the empty space inside the new apartments' wall to exhibit the city's origins. Miguel Angel Almeida is responsible for designing this mural.
He is a Caldwell native, and his mural represents both farmworkers and street vendors which Almeida says are a big part of the Caldwell community.
“Farm workers are out there, picking the fruits and veggies that we eat without, then we wouldn’t eat,” said Almeida. “Then street vendors, you know, there’s times where I would just go see somebody out with the stand selling elotes or paletas, so I wanted to honor that.”
The large-scale mural is set to be completed Thursday, Sept. 27, and the smaller mural inside the new apartment building should be done within the next two weeks.
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