FORT MYERS, Fla. — New murals are being painted behind McCollum Hall depicting Black history in Fort Myers.
The murals are painted on seventeen concrete panels on the eight-foot-tall wall that separates McCollum Hall from the residential neighborhood just to the north. The Fort Myers Mural Society says work on the mural began in early January and was completed Thursday.
J.P. Almonacid and Erik Schlake were both chosen as the mural artists for the Buck’s Backyard Mural Project at McCollum Hall by the City of Fort Myers Public Art Committee on Tuesday, September 15, 2020.
Almonicid and Schlake were chosen from a field of nine applicants by a gold star five-member selection committee who scored the artists’ submissions on the basis of originality, technical ability, visibility by motorists passing by on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, style and how well their designs express the Buck’s Backyard theme. Each finalist presented their final designs to the Public Art Committee at their September 15 meeting.
