Discovering the true colors of home

By Jennie Daley

MILLHEIM -- It starts with a blank wall and a vision. By summer's end these will combine with community input and local talent to create a Millheim mural on the side of the Elk Creek Cafe.

The creation is the honors thesis project of Millheim native and Penn State senior Elody Gyekis. A double major in painting and ceramics, with a minor in civic and community engagement, Gyekis has honed the needed skills during summer internships in Harrisburg. There, employed with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, she lived in the low-income area of Allison Hill and used a strategy of involving the community in design and creation of a huge wall painting with messages endorsed by the neighborhood.

She is redeploying that strategy in Millheim and started the effort with two recent brainstorming sessions. The meetings were held in the back of the Elk Creek Café, which is owned in part by her father. During them, she invited area residents to talk about what Millheim represents for them and how they would like to see Millheim represented.

Gyekis’ goal is to create a mural that celebrates the natural and cultural heritage of her hometown. “Four years ago, I graduated with very little intention of ever coming back,” she said at Wednesday’s session. “Now I’m getting to know a community I didn’t try to know before.”

More than two dozen people, from high school students to retirees, braved the cold to join Wednesday’s session and share their thoughts about the Millheim community as they see it. As they spoke, some recurring themes emerged.

Nicole and Lee Thompson, who chair the borough planning commission and Historical Architectural Review Board, respectively, spoke for those who appreciate the area’s history. She talked about how, when you enter Millheim, it’s “almost like you take a step back in time. There are very few communities that have kept that historical character.”

Others noted that Millheim means “home of mill” in Dutch, a nod to both the Dutch settlers who made their homes there and the many mills that used to dot downtown’s Elk Creek.

Most talked about the importance of the landscape and many identified the village stoplight as a Millheim icon, considering it’s the only one for miles in any direction. Discussion of the intersection led to exploration of the idea of Millheim as a crossroads between cultures, times and industries.

As the meeting came to a close, there was a notable excitement and pride in the room. One local business owner, Ronald Fetzer, who is also president of the East Penns Valley Business Association, summed up the progress.

“I’ve heard a lot of great ideas,” Fetzer said, “and I don’t envy the task of sorting them all out.”

Once Gyekis does sort them out, there will be fundraising events and more community investment sessions. Through donations and grants, Gyekis hopes to raise up to $5,700 to cover all the costs, though she expects the work could still be done if the effort falls short of that goal.

Community input session will be needed to debate concepts and talk about designs. Gyekis hopes to use a voting process to select the final image for the mural.

After that’s settled she will be able to apply herself to one of the more unique parts of the project: Creating paint-by-number panels.

Gyekis uses the process to allow members of the community to help paint the mural without threatening the integrity of the design. The panels are small enough to be transportable, meaning she can take them to places such as senior citizen homes where residents wouldn’t otherwise be likely to participate. Utilizing panels also avoid the hazardous proposition of sending volunteers up on scaffolding to paint.

To make the panels, Gyekis has devised an elaborate system of tracing a projection of the image in paint-by-number fashion and numbering each blob. She then mixes enough paint to ensure uniformity across all blobs of the same number.

“Doing paint-by number is probably just as hard, if not harder, than painting it myself,” she said.

While it is hard work, Gyekis thinks the investment is worthwhile, having seen the results in Harrisburg. During her summer internships she created two murals, one involving community leaders to share messages of non-violence as part of an anti-gun campaign. The second project, along the Mulberry Street bridge, spans nearly 300 feet and stands 6 feet tall. The physical context of the bridge allowed for an artistic interpretation of bridges across time, place and culture. It took nearly two years to complete.

In Millheim, the project will be scaled down, taking months instead of years and likely covering an area of about 30 feet by 15 feet.

Nonetheless, Gyekis intends it to have the same impact.

“Hopefully, you’re building some sort of community identity about revitalization and people are claiming responsibility for the future of a place,” she said. “It’s about the process of engaging people in a conversation about their space.”

Her adviser at Penn State, associate professor of communication, arts & sciences Rosa Eberly, is also excited about the implications of the project.

“Elody’s proposal is a splendid example of scholarship and creative work combining for the public good,” she said. “The idea is to help create the democratic capacity to get people engaged in a community for the greater good.”

The plan is to finish the mural by summer’s end.

For now, Gyekis is planning to seek out locals who aren’t likely to attend meetings and make sure they also have a voice in the process. After gathering as many suggestions as possible, the next round of community sessions will be scheduled.

Anyone interested in learning about the next sessions, once they’re scheduled, can e-mail Gyekis at elody@psu.edu.