{"id":232939,"date":"2025-09-17T04:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232939\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:19:18","slug":"meet-the-artist-behind-st-clouds-new-downtown-mural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232939\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet The Artist Behind St. Cloud’s New Downtown Mural"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. CLOUD (WJON News<\/a><\/strong>) — A large, colorful piece of public art is going up along the side of a building in downtown St. Cloud.<\/p>\n

Tara Aiken<\/strong> of Minnetonka has been commissioned to paint a mural on the side of the building of the future Metz. & Co. store at the corner of West St. Germain Street and 7th Avenue North.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/b>What\u2019s Next For St. Cloud’s Historic Metzroths Building?<\/a>\u00a0|<\/p>\n

Aiken says the 30-foot by 20-foot mural is inspired by the traditional postcard murals that you’ve likely seen in many other cities.<\/p>\n

She says the approach is to honor the history and the architecture of downtown St. Cloud while creating a “Welcome to St. Cloud Downtown Mural.”<\/p>\n

Aiken has done a lot of large-scale art projects in the past, including some street painting.\u00a0 However, she says this is the largest piece she’s ever done.\u00a0 She says it had to be big to honor the size of the building.<\/p>\n

The project is expected to take two to three weeks, depending on the weather.\u00a0 The hope is to have it completed by October 1st.<\/p>\n

The goal for the mural is that it will become a stop for locals and visitors to take photos when they are downtown.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Aiken says, as word gets out about the project, she’s noticed some increased traffic on the street with some people driving by and honking and cheering, which she appreciates while she works in the hot sun.<\/p>\n

mural\/Jim Maurice<\/p>\n

mural\/Jim MauriceFunding the Project<\/p>\n

Visit Greater St. Cloud is the overall project manager, while the Downtown Alliance has also been involved in the design process; the owner of the building also helped with the final creation.<\/p>\n

Funding the project are O’Brien’s Dry Goods, Metz. & Co., Great River Children’s Museum, and the Legacy Foundation.\u00a0 The work is funded in part by MHC with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.<\/p>\n

mural\/Jim Maurice<\/p>\n

mural\/Jim MauriceFamily Affair<\/p>\n

While Aiken is from Minnetonka, she is pretty familiar with St. Cloud.\u00a0 Her husband is from St. Cloud and graduated from Cathedral High School and St. John’s University.<\/p>\n

She’s enlisted her mother-in-law to help her work on the mural.<\/p>\n

Aiken is looking forward to being able to enjoy the work in the future on visits to town.<\/p>\n

Work with the Minnesota Twins<\/p>\n

While Aiken might be best known for her large-scale art projects, she’s gotten some traction in recent years working with players on the Minnesota Twins roster.<\/p>\n

Carlos Correa first reached out to her to create some art on two pairs of his cleats last year.\u00a0 This year she has done cleat art on 10 pairs of Byron Buxton’s shoes – including his famous Skittles pair.\u00a0 Royce Lewis and Bailey Ober have also had cleats made by Aiken<\/p>\n

\"AM<\/p>\n

The cleat art is a way for Major League Baseball players to express their personality on the field, especially during Players Weekend.<\/p>\n

Earth, Wind and Fire at the Ledge Amphitheater.<\/p>\n

The 70s group Earth, Wind, and Fire wrapped up a great week of shows at the Ledge in August of 2025.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Paul Habstritt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. CLOUD (WJON News) — A large, colorful piece of public art is going up along the side…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,16339,2295,16340,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-232939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-from-the-wjon-newsroom","13":"tag-newsletter","14":"tag-st-cloud-news","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115217718635903675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}