Twelve students finished fall break by unveiling a permanent mural on a downtown Hopkinsville business. The Pennyroyal Arts Council’s Fall Mural Camp ended Friday, Oct. 9, with the young artists’ work on the Clay Street-facing wall of Hudson’s Antique Depot & More. Flowers, two cardinals and the words “Hey Good Lookin” bring together the main elements of a design by local artist Paula Gieseke, which students painted during the camp.
Image note: The accompanying stock photograph shows a different floral mural and is illustrative; it is not the Hopkinsville artwork.
The Arts Council scheduled the camp for Oct. 5–9, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon each day for students in grades 5 through 12. Across five mornings, that added up to 15 scheduled hours. The camp is part of the council’s smARTS, or Students Meeting the Arts, programming. The council described it as a guided mural-making process, from concept and design through the final brushstrokes, with large-scale painting and collaborative design among the skills students would explore. The program filled a week of fall break with a structured arts activity for students who were out of school. The Arts Council said registration was limited to allow for individualized instruction.
The council said students would make a permanent public mural alongside a professional teaching artist. Its program description connects public art with community history and identity. For this project, the goal was especially local: Gieseke told WKDZ before the reveal that she wanted the mural to represent both Kentucky and Hopkinsville while giving people a way to interact with the artwork.
Gieseke, a Christian County High School art teacher, led the project and created the mural’s design, according to WKDZ and WHOP. WHOP reported that the finished wall features flowers and two cardinals beside the phrase “Hey Good Lookin.” It also reported that Hudson’s owner wanted a place where people could stop and take photographs. The exterior setting and the short greeting give the wall the photo-friendly role the owner requested.
The idea took several weeks to settle. Gieseke told WKDZ that multiple concepts were developed before the final design was selected. She said the planning had to find an approach that worked for the building’s owners, the Arts Council and the broader community. WKDZ also reported that the council contacted several local businesses about hosting a mural and that Hudson’s owners quickly expressed interest.
During camp, students worked with large-scale public art under a professional teaching artist’s guidance. The Arts Council’s description says the program covers collaborative design and painting techniques. In this mural’s case, WHOP reports that 12 students painted the final design created by Gieseke. The result reflects both parts of the project: an artist-developed concept and young campers’ hands-on work putting it on the wall.
For Bri Smith, the fall session was also a first. WHOP reported that Smith joined the Arts Council as education coordinator in August and that this was her first mural camp with the organization. Before the unveiling, she told WKDZ that she had been impressed with the students’ work throughout the camp. WHOP later described her as enjoying the process of watching the mural come to life and praising the young artists in Christian County. Christian County Now, citing an Arts Council news release, reported that art educator Cheyenne Peterson assisted Gieseke during the camp.
The Arts Council calls the finished mural permanent, so the camp’s work is intended to stay visible after the schedule ends. WHOP’s event-day report confirms that the students completed and unveiled it on Oct. 9. Its flowers, paired cardinals and greeting are now part of the outside wall the owner offered for the project, putting the youth program’s work in a public downtown setting.
The camp closed with the unveiling, but the Arts Council describes the work as permanent. The students’ painted design now remains on the business’s exterior wall, where it can continue to be seen downtown after the fall-break program ends.
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