Art imitates life in Heartside with new mural

Travelers near the intersection of Cherry and Division are taking a double-take at the new "Grand Rapids Furniture City" mural recently completed on the south wall of139 South Division.

Heartside's newest public work of art, a mural in the centuries-old tradition of architectural trompe l'oeil known as quadratura, by renowned artist Richard Haas has taken its place among other Heartside murals by local artists such as Reb, Tom Duimstra and Eric Tascote. This work tells a story about the lumber and furniture industry around Division Avenue, with a "time-elapse" depiction of furniture store display windows, and incorporating other aspects of the era whimsically blended into faux architectural elements, celebrating the part that craft played in establishing the street.

The mural recalls a time that at first might seem incongruous to the current spirit and energy in Heartside. Every era on Division, though, had its own character, which must have seemed unchangeable in its time. At the height of the lumber and furniture boom that made Grand Rapids a national destination, it probably seemed impossible that the elegant facades and bustling rail stations would ever fall into disrepair due to lack of use, and just as unlikely that its revival would be primarily due to investments and a class of people largely excluded from participation during the boom times

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Heartside, now fueled by artists and entrepreneurs with the backbone of public and private ministries and social service organizations, is itself as thought-provoking as the wittiness of rich detail rising almost magically from a flat wall.

Heartside is always breaking stereotypes, playing with assumptions - that commerce is hobbled by a social conscience, that disadvantaged people don't need art and beauty as much as food and shelter, that only some ideas are valid and important to consider.

This mural is another example of the paradox that Heartside is, and should continue to be, refusing to be defined by arbitrary labels, by social or economic class, and not by monetary quantification, be it high or low.

Heartside Mainstreet would like to thank the funders of this project: Dyer-Ives Foundation, Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Greater Grand Rapids Arts Council, Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, Keller Foundation, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, and building owner Joseph Niewiek.