GREENVILLE – The first new mural produced by the Greenville Mural Committee this spring will be installed on Tuesday, July 8, on the A & B Coffee Shop building at the corner of Broadway and East Fourth Street, weather permitting. Onlookers will be welcome to watch as Joe Wintrow of Wintrow Signs donates his time to install the committee’s fifth mural.
The morning-only watch party starts at 10 a.m.; at approximately 10 feet square, the art will go up quickly. In case of rain, the installation will be postponed on a day-by-day basis.
Inspiration for this installation percolated from A & B owners Aaron and Betsy Ward, who in their coffee shop proudly display a framed copy of a collage of Greenville’s historical homes and buildings created in 1981 by Greenville native Jeffrey Feltman. A colorful print will soon be accompanied by a key in black and white, identifying the buildings depicted; this key will be displayed inside A &B and will also be available at greenvilleohiomurals.com.
The key is based on a guidebook created many years ago by long-time former Garst Museum director Toni Seiler. Many of the buildings still exist; some have been repurposed, while others are gone now. The print was digitized by Tim Wells Art Consulting, and is being enlarged, printed and installed by Joe Wintrow of Wintrow Signs and Designs, both of whom have donated much time to this project.
A & B Coffee Shop owners Aaron and Betsy Ward are eagerly looking forward to the installation of the new mural.
“We are very pleased to add Jeffrey Feltman’s art to our building,” Betsy said.
Jeffrey Feltman, a 1977 Greenville High School graduate who received bachelor’s degrees in art and history from Ball State University and master’s degree from Tufts University, served as a Foreign Service officer for the United States government posted to Port au Prince, Haiti, Budapest Hungary, Amman, Jordan, Tel Aviv, Israel, Tunis, Tunisia, and Jerusalem, Israel before being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. He then served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and was U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa before becoming United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Jeff is currently affiliated with the Brookings Institution and the United Nations Foundation. He and his wife, Mary Draper, currently split their time between a house in Washington, DC and a small farm near Gettysburg, PA. Jeff is the son of Greenville resident Roberta Feltman and the late David Feltman.
Funds for this mural project are provided by A & B Coffee, Darke County Endowment for the Arts, Brown Family Foundation, Lydia Schaurer Memorial Trust Fund, and Harry D. Stephens Memorial, Inc.
The Greenville Mural Committee also thanks Tim Wells and Joe Wintrow for their donations of labor.
Additionally, funding from the Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
