ABOVE: The first water quality art education piece, created by Imagine Martin artist, Al Hurney, on the sidewalk at the end of Downtown Plaza in Fairmont. The city of Fairmont is looking for businesses and organizations willing to have art installed on their property, too.

FAIRMONT– The city of Fairmont is looking for businesses and organizations interested in and willing to have some art work encouraging preservation of the lakes on or near their establishment. The work will be installed by local artists and funded with a source water protection grant the city received.

Hannah Neusch, a water resource technician with the city, said she had applied for the grant in order to do the art installations as a means of public education regarding water quality.

“We want to try and keep water quality in the forefront of people’s minds whether it’s tourists, visitors or people who live here so they remember as they’re walking down the street to use the trash can and if you see something near a storm drain to pick it up,” Neusch said.

Plus, she said the pieces will be interesting to look at. Rather than just a metal ‘don’t litter’ sign, the installations will be unique and colorful.

“The secondary part of it is it’s kind of a city beautification project,” Neusch said.

After she applied for the grant, she was pleased to learn the city was awarded $8,000 which it must use by the fall of 2025 so it wants to make sure plans are in place to use up all of the funds before then. Fairmont was specifically in the running for this grant because it draws drinking water from surface water, which not many cities in the state do.

Once it received the grant funding, the city reached out to local arts non-profit, Imagine Martin, whose artist Al Hurney installed the first piece of art as a demo on Downtown Plaza in September.

“Imagine Martin seemed to be a good option and they were very excited about participating right from the get-go,” Neusch said.

Moving forward Neusch said they’re open to working with students or other local artists who apply.

The first piece went with the theme “the lake starts here,” because while it wasn’t installed near a lake, it is next to some storm drains that lead to the lake.

“When we have an artist doing a piece of work and we know where they’re working at, we ask them to draw inspiration from that theme. We’d love it if that text is in there but it isn’t necessary if it’s implied,” Neusch explained. “Essentially we want the piece of art to be beautiful but also represent Fairmont and Minnesota.”

With that said, the first part is gaging interest so the city is looking to hear from businesses and organizations that are interested in having a piece installed on their property.

“We would like it to be in an area that will be publicly viewed with people coming and going,” Neusch said.

Some of the areas the pieces could be installed include a sidewalk, parking lot, paintable area of outdoor wall space, etc. Neusch asks that the entities are inventive and open to different ideas.

She asks that interested business contact her at hneusch@fairmont.org. They will then fill out a brief application and if selected, Neusch will work with the business or organization and the artist to see when the best time to get the piece installed would be.

“Really it shouldn’t be too intrusive and the fact that it doesn’t cost the business anything and it will beautify the outside of their facade, I think it’s really good for everyone,” Neusch said.