Mainstreet Daily News
Starting Saturday, Heart of High Springs will present Celebrating History, Celebrating Art through a variety of activities that will span the following week in downtown High Springs.
The kickoff event will be at City Hall and consist of a presentation on the history of High Springs from 1800 to 1900, collected historic stories from the area, large-scale team painting (with materials provided) and the launch of a self-guided walking tour of the city’s current murals.
Attendees can also bring old print photos to scan and digitize through CRASH of Gainesville.
The exhibit of local historical stories will stay on public display in the High Springs Branch Library’s public meeting room from Sunday through Friday during normal business hours.
On Sunday at 4 p.m. and Wednesday at 5 p.m., Heart of High Springs will hold A Conversation: Building Community Through Preservation of History. The event will allow community members to talk about preservings telling stories through art.
The event will be held at the High Springs Branch Library and feature father daughter muralists Doug and Nora Hancock along with business owner and city commissioner Ross Ambrose, who also helped found Heart of High Springs.
Also on Wednesday, historian “Railroad Bob” Watson and emcee Tyler Lynch will hold High Springs History Trivia from 5 to 7 p.m. at the High Springs Brewing Company with food truck Filipino Flavors.
To culminate, Heart of High Springs will hold two events on Saturday that coincide with this year’s return of the monthly Art Walk.
Local artists Jessica Caldas and Doug Hancock will explain how communities have used public art to honor their descendants in Public Art as Monuments to History. The event will start at 2 p.m. at the High Springs New Century Woman’s Club.
Then at 4 p.m., local artist Tina Corbett will host Plein Air Art, a time for local artists to share stories of painting in and around High Springs. The event will feature a visual and verbal presentation preserves the past and protects the future. The woman’s club will also host this event.
This weekly event caused a stir in February and prompted a special commission workshop over the permitting. Ultimately, the commission couldn’t revoke a special permit even if commissioners might not like some of the discussion at the event, centering the possible increase of murals in downtown High Springs.