VW victory
Waynesburg zoning board OKs public art display
A newly tie-dyed Volkwagen Beetle now has a permanent parking place.
The borough鈥檚 zoning board voted 4-0 Monday night to grant an exemption to allow Farley鈥檚 Hotel Cafe owner Farley Toothman to mount the painted shell of a Beetle on the garage wall opposite his cafe on Morgan Street.
For the 8-by-14-foot display, he enlisted the help of the Waynesburg Central High School art program, which has been painting in the style of the 1960s hippie movement.
Toothman was required to get approval for the project within the B-1 business district, as Waynesburg鈥檚 zoning does not specifically list public art as a permitted use.
Toothman said he also had to agree to what he said were 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� conditions, such as no profanity and no product advertisements.
鈥淚鈥檓 pleased, and somewhat enthusiastic, about their embrace of public art,鈥� he said Thursday. 鈥淚 think we have a long way to go, and it鈥檚 kind of a fun trail to be on.鈥�
Toothman said the art class could finish painting the Volkswagen this week. After that, he plans to have the students continue by painting a historic Greene County scene on the wall where the car half will be mounted.
Through a public art page Toothman created on Facebook, he also found someone to paint the other half of the Beetle. Casey Robinson鈥檚 art class at West Greene High School will be turning it into its own canvas 鈥� this time, for a history-related theme to coincide with America鈥檚 sesquicentennial.
In his presentation to the board, Toothman said, he brought up the murals and public art displays in other regional communities like Greensburg and Morgantown, W.Va.
Eventually, he hopes to see something akin to the Public Art and Mural trail along Route 6 in northern Pennsylvania, which features more than 50 murals across six counties.
鈥淚 think that Waynesburg and southwest Pennsylvania could be on the same sort of thing for those who like to drive their convertibles and visit various towns,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥漵 not only towns the size of Waynesburg, but it鈥檚 also the much smaller little hamlets out there that have art in their soul somewhere.鈥�