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With the work of the Toledo Polish Genealogical Society (TPGS), Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, Greater Toledo Community Foundation and artist Dean Davis, the Eastern European Mural is coming to life.
Soon to be located on the LaSalle Cleaners building in downtown Toledo, at the corner of Jefferson Ave. and Michigan St., the mural depicts the journey of Eastern European immigrants from their native countries to Toledo.
“So when my family came here and people that you have talked to whose family came here, they’ve always told this story and that’s the mural,” said Kevin Kwiatkowski, TPGS president. “If you look at the photo of the mural, you see the family saying goodbye to their homeland… Then you see them at the port, getting their ticket and the port that they’re coming out of is Rotterdam, which was the biggest port of immigration in Europe back at that time… Then you see them with the Statue of Liberty in the harbor… You see them getting their ticket from New York City to Toledo, Ohio. Then you see them being greeted by family and friends in Toledo.”
Planning Stage
The idea for the mural came from Kwiatkowski noticing that Toledo did not have anything recognizing these immigrants, so he wanted to change that.
“There’s absolutely nothing in the city of Toledo’s public art that memorializes or commemorates the immigrants that came over from Europe, from 1860 to 1920,” Kwiatkowksi said. “In that period of time, the city of Toledo roughly grew in population three times what it was when they started because of all the immigrants that came into this area.”
Kwiatkowski calls this gap in Toledo’s public art scene “a miss.”
“I just think it’s something that is a miss in Toledo. There’s not a statue, there’s not a plaque. Whether it be German, whether it be Polish, whether it be Hungarian, there’s nothing,” Kwiatkowski said.
While trying to find an organization or artist to paint the mural, Kwiatkowski ran into local artist Dean Davis.
“After talking to city people, after talking to The Arts Commission, nobody really wanted to take on this. Dean Davis was painting this mural at Clay High School and I know Dean from his work around Toledo. So I just went up to him and said, ‘What do you think of this idea?’ He absolutely loved it and he just grabbed onto it and ran with it,” Kwiatkowski said.
After the meeting, Kwiatkowski told Davis the story behind the mural and Davis designed some renderings to get the project moving.
“I think it’s a great subject matter that we could share on public art… From there, I decided to come up with some renderings. I wanted to start showing the creative direction to make sure that everybody was on the same page by doing that initiative first,” Davis said.
Once the concept for the mural was decided on, the team got to work finding a location. In the end, they chose the LaSalle Cleaners location at 922 Jefferson Ave., a building built by immigrants.
“One of the reasons why that mural was put there was that the person who built that building was a Polish immigrant. Mr. Resnick, who built that building, came from Poland. Coincidentally, we didn’t know that when we were first looking,” Kwiatkowski said. “I was talking to Gary Resnick, he said, ‘My family came from Europe,’ and I said, ‘Where did they come from?’ He goes, ‘I really don’t know.’ I said, ‘Let me look into it. I do genealogy.’ I call him back. I go, ‘Gary, you’re Polish.’”
Donations
Now that the design and location have been picked out, the team is counting on donations.
“We’re collecting donations now. The goal was to have the mural up by July 4 as part of the [United States’] 250th Anniversary. Whether it makes it or not is down to scheduling and funding. Still, the mural’s going to be up and it’s going to be up this year,” Kwiatkowski said.
In order to raise funds, Davis went to Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful and the Greater Toledo Community Foundation.
“One of the things about all these projects was I wanted to do it very legitimately, so when it came down to money and funding and support partnership, I wanted to work with a nonprofit,” Davis said. “I teamed up last year with Keep Lucas County/Toledo Beautiful, so when it came down to working together, they made it really easy and the Greater Toledo Community Foundation is a financial firm, so when people donate money, they’re not just donating it to somebody; it just makes it more legitimate.”
To donate, go to www.ktlcb.org/murals and scroll down to where it says, ‘Donate.’ Your donation will go to the One Hundred Works of Art Fund, which helps fund the Eastern European Mural.
You can also donate by sending a check to the Greater Toledo Community Foundation. On the memo line, write, “100 Pieces of Art/Eastern European Mural.” You can send your check to Kevin Kwiatkowski at 5035 Wynn Park Dr., Oregon, Ohio 43616 or to the Toledo Polish Genealogical Society at St. Jerome Parish, located at 300 Warner St., Walbridge, Ohio 43465.
The Meaning Behind the Mural
While Davis was designing the mural, he wanted not just to depict the hope of coming to America but also the fear of abandoning one’s home.
“The understanding that you’re leaving a country that is home to establish yourself in letters,” Davis said. “So, in the image that we’ve depicted, it shows a little boy looking over the edge of this boat and I think that there’s a lot of hope as he leaves the country and then he sees the Statue of Liberty for the first time and I think that’s powerful, but that’s just half the story; you’re in this country, how do you get to Toledo and what happened there? All these people took train rides from New York to Toledo and they met at the churches… We depicted St. Patrick’s as where they met, they united with their family members and that’s really special.”
In his depiction, Davis also wanted to make sure the art piece was for the public, not just one specific person.
“Public art is not meant to be only done by a certain person’s ideology… When you do hear these ideas from the public, we should be looking at that as an opportunity to capture that and talk through it a little bit more,” Davis said. “We were all immigrants in one sense, right? We all came here from another generation that may have lived in a different country and why don’t we share that story?”
The Eastern European Mural depicts a man, woman and two children immigrating to Toledo. Their exact ethnicity is up to the viewer.
“Someone can say they’re German, someone can say they’re Polish, someone can say they’re Hungarian… We’re soliciting for all the European countries, not just one specific country. So the mural does not depict a particular dress custom because we want to make it generic,” Kwiatkowski said.
Because of this all-encompassing depiction, Kwiatkowski hopes that viewers find their own family and experiences in the mural.
“Two of my grandfathers came from Poland. So my grandfather, I like to think, is the man in the mural. Because I’m creating this, I’m looking at that mural and I’m identifying that man as my grandfather,” Kwiatkowski said.
Kwiatkowski finds the entire mural important because it showcases Toledo’s “culture.”
“Toledo is based on different communities; it’s our culture. Like the Polish Picnic, the German American Festival, the Irish Festival that’s coming up in July out of Oakshake Grove, the Birmingham Festival. We all celebrate our ethnic background and we all do it in Toledo. That mural, to me, symbolizes what Toledo really is,” Kwiatkowski said.
