After a month of being on display and catching the eyes of passersby, 19 murals created for Fraser’s Mountain Mural Festival are ready to find homes.
The silent auction for the eight-foot square murals depicting different interpretations of four themes — the town’s history, local preservation, transportation and outdoor life — is live on the website and app Handbid.
So far, the auction has drawn a good amount of bidders, said Sarah Wieck, Fraser’s marketing and economic development director. She said the town hopes to sell each mural for a few hundred dollars.
“Ideally, we will sell them all,” Wieck said. “Around $400 each is what we’re shooting for.”
Some murals already have bidders vying for them, including the festival winner Hector Palacios and runner-up Alexandrea Pangburn.
Half of the proceeds raised by selling the murals will go to the fundraising efforts for the Fraser Center for Creative Arts, a proposed $5 million project that will house an art gallery, artist studios, makerspaces and living space. The other half will go directly to the artists.
Wieck said the town is completing the process of creating the nonprofit foundation for the Center for Creative Arts and then will focus on more fundraising efforts.
“The groundwork is the 501c3, and after we get that set up, we’re going to move forward from there,” she said. “It’s in the infant stage.”
Murals start at $50 on Handbid and go up in $20 increments. Bidding will be open until Monday, Sept. 2.