The mural will be placed on the south side of the Cadillac Pizza Building.[/caption]

The city’s first public art mural has finally found a home. The mural will be added to the south side of the Cadillac Pizza building, located at 112 S. Kentucky St., once minor wall repairs are made.

The process to create a public art mural in downtown McKinney began in 2013. However, Janay Tieken, the city’s liaison to the McKinney Arts Commission, said it was placed on hold after a discussion regarding a potential parking garage and its location surfaced.

“It has definitely been a process and vetting through the arts commission, residents and city council,” she said. “It feels really good that it is finally coming to fruition. It is so exciting, I can’t even begin to tell you. I can’t wait to see it, I can’t wait to even be in the process.”

Tieken said the repair to the wall should take about three weeks and the painting of the mural will take about six weeks. She said she is hoping attendees will be able to watch the artist paint the mural during Arts in Bloom in April.

A public arts subcommittee put out a request for qualifications from North Texas artists. Eight submissions were received and from those, three finalists were chosen. The arts commission then had the artists provide a design and mock-up of their vision based on arts commission guidelines and Misty Oliver-Foster was selected.

“I think the mural adds to the quality of life in downtown McKinney,” Tieken said. “It’s another focal point and another thing people can look at when they are downtown shopping. It reflects the history of McKinney so it is a great place to take a photograph. It reinforces the aesthetic of McKinney, the unique by nature, the fact that residents and city council value quality of life and beauty in the city. To me, that is what public art is all about.”

Tieken said this is the first in what the arts commission hopes will be a series of murals.

The mural is expected to be complete by early summer.