“Beauty & the Bridge” Public Dedication Event Held on Sunday, October 7, 2012

The City of Wilsonville and the West Linn-Wilsonville School District sponsored a public dedication event to commemorate completion of the “Beauty & the Bridge” student art project that was a component of the larger I-5/Wilsonville Road interchange improvement.

Sponsored by Fred Meyer stores, the event featured enlarged photos of various project murals and a number of community leaders, school district officials, project managers, art instructors and students speaking at the nearby Old Town Square plaza area. Staff from Fred Meyer served-up 500 cupcakes to attendees, and nearby merchants Qdoba and Subway each donated 20% of non-discounted sales that day to Music and Arts Partners (MAP), the primary arts-support group for local public schools.

View Flyer 

Current photos showing progress made to date on the interchange project:

Original Artist's Rendering		Current Wall

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As Wilsonville Road interchange area converts from six lanes to eight lanes for vehicular safety and capacity improvements, bicyclists and pedestrians also benefit with better east/west crossings under I-5. Wilsonville’s young student artists will create tile art to be incorporated into the design to beautify the environment to make it inviting, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing, with the goals of improving mobility and encouraging bicycling and walking.

The Wilsonville City Council recognized the critical need for better community walking and bicycling connections on Wilsonville Road. With dedicated funds to improve the infrastructure, the project additionally provides Wilsonville public school students a unique civic and educational opportunity to craft a truly local work of art. The end result will connect youth not only to the present community but ever after to Wilsonville.

Beauty and the Bridge's key goals are to:

• Make Wilsonville Road more inviting to walk and bike

• Create a safe way to travel for people who walk and bike under I-5 and to cross the street

• Involve Wilsonville public schools in the creation of a unique piece of public art

• Create an attractive and inviting gateway to Wilsonville

The project will involve over a thousand of Wilsonville’s elementary, middle, and high school students in the creation of public tiled art. To ensure that the project reflects student voices, a Student Art Council (SAC) formed early in the project. The SAC serves as a liaison between the project, project stakeholders, and the media. It represents just one layer of a remarkable process that brings together city staff, council, schools, and the community in combining public art with a major infrastructure construction project.