FREDERICK -- As artist Bill Cochran begins to paint gray and brown stones on an otherwise bland downtown bridge, preservationists and others here find themselves revisiting old wounds about the role of public art in the city's treasured historic district.
The Carroll Street Bridge project is the latest in a series of murals to decorate the streetscape in Frederick's picturesque, 33-block historic section. When completed, the 2,000-square-foot mural will create an illusion of an arched-stone bridge over Carroll Creek.
"I think art will always have its detractors and its opponents," said Fran Baker, a Frederick alderman and a mural proponent. "We have to look at public art as a will of the majority. And the majority is getting possessive about the art and really likes it."
But Mr. Cochran and his work are no strangers to controversy.
His "Angels in the Architecture" series -- three-dimensional figures that can be found along Market Street -- created an uproar when they were first proposed in the late 1980s. Opposition all but disappeared, however, as other artists brought the works from canvas to brick.
"These works have universal appeal," Mr. Cochran said.
Even so, preservationists such as Theresa Mathias Michel still argue that 20th-century art has no place on the brick facades of the city's 18th- and 19th-century buildings.
"There is a place for public art but not on the back of original architecture," said Mrs. Michel, a Frederick resident and former member of the Maryland Historical Trust. "It attracts attention. but I'd rather have attention attracted to the original aspects of Frederick's architecture and its history."
Mr. Cochran, creator of both the "Angels in the Architecture" and bridge murals, and his supporters believe public art adds to the downtown landscape and creates a sense of community.
"Frederick is a far more popular place because of the public art in the historic district," said Clem Gardiner, president of the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, which sits near the bridge. "New public art is as natural to Frederick as any other development."
Ann Burnside Love, owner and president of a downtown marketing company, sees the $172,000 bridge mural as an economic draw.
"Public art is one of the major contributions being made to downtown as a place to live, to work and to visit," she said. "Even though you're looking at it as art -- it's part of the economic development of the city and the county."
The mural -- which includes such elements as green ivy and a scrolled metal gate -- will be the first showpiece of a creek redevelopment project. The $72 million project includes flood-control improvements and development of a 1.4-mile linear park.
Although murals can be found in other Maryland communities, such as Cambridge on the Eastern Shore, Charles Camp, a grants officer with the Maryland State Arts Council, said Frederick stands alone among state municipalities in its commitment to public art.
"It's unusual in the sense that there are no other towns I know of that have made a large commitment to public displays of this kind -- murals and other sorts of decorative work," he said.
Although Mrs. Michel said the bridge mural is appropriate for a new structure, she, like others, has questioned the city spending $70,000 on such a project during lean economic times.
The nonprofit group overseeing the bridge mural, Shared Vision: Public Art for Community Transformation, said the city would have spent that much to install artificial stone on the bridge.
Frederick artist James Pearl raises artistic objections. "I'm opposed to anything that has a strong sense of artificiality about it," Mr. Pearl said. "Painting make-believe granite blocks is not appealing to me as an artist. Not only that, but the materials being used won't last as long as the artist says they will."
Mr. Pearl said the city would have been better off spending the money to build a real granite bridge. Other artists, such as John Holly, also of Frederick, are worried that money won't be available to repair the murals, which, he said, are already peeling.
"Yes, this is an exciting project that brings people to Frederick," Mr. Holly said. "But [the group] should be raising money to make sure these murals are being taken care of."
Mr. Cochran, however, contends the murals will endure, much as murals in Switzerland and Germany have lasted for a century.
The muralist and his supporters see the bridge as a symbolic work of art -- one that connects the community. They note community and business organizations have donated to the project and 100 volunteers are helping with fund raising and other work. And every Frederick County resident is a potential participant. Shared Vision will ask residents this month and next to suggest ornaments to be painted on the bridge. So far, an open hand, a shaft of wheat and a pair of fish are among the contributions.
But even as work on the bridge mural begins in earnest, a more formidable opponent looms. The nonprofit group has raised only half of the $200,000 needed for the project, a related exhibit at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center and administrative expenses, said Teresa Cochran, Mr. Cochran's wife and spokeswoman for Shared Vision.
"At this point we don't have the money to purchase the materials and hire the assistants to continue at the rate we need to to get the project done by fall," Mrs. Cochran said.
She hopes that donations will increase as the group embarks on its community campaign. The mural is set to be finished by October, at the height of the city's yearlong 250th anniversary celebration.