The project catalyst is designer Sarah Tracey, who is helping Urban Village to transform the buildings on the corner of Park Ave. and Leavenworth from condemned properties into beautiful and innovative communities. She also began Start Labs – an organization that aims to bring designers, architects, artists and landscapers into relationships that transform Omaha's Midtown into a great place to live. A faded, cracked eyesore and graffiti magnet, the back wall of the old Safeway grocery building, now owned by Nash-Finch Company, stirred Sarah to plan a mural using vegetable and fruit images derived from playing cards her boss had given to her as an inspirational gift. Sarah created a rendered image of the design (renderings attached below) using photographs and scanned images of fruits and veggies from the palying cards to pitch the idea to Leavenworth Neighborhood association and the Ford Birth Sight Neighborhood Association. The mural depicts fruits and vegetables that are sold at the Mexican grocery store as well as ”papeles picados” (mexican paper cuttings) designed by young students at Jackson Elementary. They became very excited and eventually became winners of two Omaha Mayor's Grant awards helping to fund the project. Additional funding comes from Mutual of Omaha and Nash-Finch, which has been in the news lately for acquiring the No Frills and the Bag-and-Save grocery stores in Nebraska. Sarah contacted local artists Richard Harrison and Mike Girón for this project and the rest is history!
