Work on a new mural along Market Street is scheduled to begin on Monday. The mural was approved by the city council last year and picked up traction as partial funding was secured through the Grigg Lewis Foundation and Big Ditch Brewing. Now, Lockport-based Niagara County Legislator Carla Speranza is trying to secure the last piece of funding — $1,200 from the Niagara County Community Partnership fund.
“I am hopeful,” Speranza said. “The money is there. We just need to go through the process.”
The projected cost to create the mural is $3,000 with approximately $900 going toward supplies.
Lisa Swanson-Gellerson spearheaded the project last year when she was the city’s appointed at-large alderman. Since the council’s unanimous approving vote in September 2023, the wall where the mural will go, along a section of the Market Street hill, has been primed by city crews and the surface is ready for painting.
“They were pretty helpful and it looks clean now,” Swanson-Gellerson said.
The mural was designed by Austin Hinton and will be painted by Jessica Tomaino of WAHI Studio Inc. In blue and gold, it will express Lockport pride through figures including the Flight of Five locks, a classic canal boat, and silhouettes of runners and other athletes including a kayaker. Hinton’s amended design now also includes an arrow pointing in the direction of the downtown business district.
Tomaino estimated painting the mural would take about 80 hours. It should be finished by the end of September, she said.
Tomaino completed her first mural in 2018 and this year alone she has painted four “door” murals at Hilbert College and another in Youngstown, at the village’s splash pad.
Swanson-Gellerson said she hopes the new mural will “inspire businesses to invest in public art and beautify the community.”