Art project livens up Gardnerville

Downtown Muralville got a new addition and a statue as part of a townwide art project.

Main Street Gardnerville and the town used three rural marketing grants from Travel Nevada to install a mural at Midtown Plaza West and a statue on the bench in front of Sharkey’s parking lot.

The mural is part of a grant received from Travel Nevada who approved three rural marketing COVID-19 recovery grant projects worth $29,894. The three grants were part of the downtown Gardnerville open and safe art and business signage project.

It has been five years since Gardnerville and Main Street installed the Basque Mural on the side of Cheshire Antiques.

The mural at the Midtown Plaza is of a sillouette of a cowboy on a horse. The mural includes a line across the top that includes the words “We are open and safe,” which could be removed in March 2021, should the coronavirus outbreak be over by then.

Property owner Michael Ameya said he hoped the sign will help draw traffic to the shopping center.

“The more residents and travelers feel safe about returning to shop at our stores and eat at Woodett’s Diner, the sooner our local businesses can return to some sort of normal after such challenging times,” he said.

The statue of a man reading what is assumed to be a copy of The Record-Courier is the first of a passel of new bronze denizens proposed for the town.

The statue is the first for Douglas County’s second oldest town. Statues of Lillian Virgin Finnegan and Snowshoe Thompson eye each across Main Street in Genoa.

A life-sized statue of a cowboy on a rearing horse was donated by Minden artist Larry Ray Willson to honor the people of the Dangberg Ranch in 2006.