A larger-than-life work of art is nearing completion in McKinney.
The city is getting a piece of art that only select locations in the nation have been afforded. As The Dallas Express reported, McKinney enlisted the internationally acclaimed artist Guido van Helten to adorn the city’s historic silos with a mural.
According to the artist, the piece could be finished by the end of the month.
Van Helten started the project in March by taking over 5,000 pictures of people and places throughout McKinney with his partner to get the essence and feel of the city.
“I take a lot of photographs. I have a style that you’d call documentary, I guess,” said van Helten to NBC DFW.
The Australian artist has been entertaining people around the city for weeks. A crowd gathered around the silos on Friday night to eat, play music and watch van Helten work.
“I hope they see themselves. That’s kind of the general vibe of the mural,” said van Helten, who has also painted silos in Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Arkansas.
The newly painted silos will serve as a backdrop for a public plaza in front of the new city hall, slated to break ground in the fall. While no one knows what the finished artwork will include, van Helten has painted pictures of people so far.
“Van Helten’s mural installed on our historic silos represents an incredible gift to McKinney. Not only will this mural be one of the largest works in North Texas, but the international reputation of the artist helps build an attraction that spotlights our community,” said Amy Rosenthal, director of the McKinney Performing Arts Center and McKinney Main Street, in a press release.
For now, you can see van Helten’s work on the 100-foot-tall concrete silo and grain elevator at East Virginia and Main Streets.
On September 9, 2021, the Texas Commission on the Arts approved a $90,000 grant as a Cultural District Project. The project was funded by a combination of grants, donations from private investors, the McKinney Public Art Fund, and hotel occupancy taxes.
“We saw Guido’s work, but more importantly, we were impressed with his process, and his process is a way where he entrenches himself in the community and uses his art to tell the story of a soul of community,” said McKinney Assistant City Manager Kim Flom.