2nd Round of Walldogs Mural Themes Honors Community Ask for More Diversity

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By Cole Goodwin

Northwest Mural Fest has released their second round of mural themes for public input on their website.

“In October of 2021, a preliminary set of 30 mural themes were exposed to the community at the Neon Museum in downtown The Dalles,” said the Northwest Mural Fest. “We received lots of great input to the selection, and five themes were selected to become murals.”

“We have since also worked to incorporate the public input into the new set of themes,” said the Northwest Mural Fest. “These themes will serve as inspiration for each mural lead to develop a mural design. Murals will mostly consist of images, with only very few words.”

Some new themes added to the list include The Latino Community, First Foods: Sacred Foods of the Native American Tradition, Ernie Kuck, Dr. Joseph Tamura and Marie Equi Lesbian Suffragist. 

“Both the mural society and the Mayor of The Dalles reached out to me and The Next Door on the subject of the Latino theme,” said Nik Portela, Latino Community Advocate who was one of many to call upon the Northwest Mural Fest to address the lack of diversity in the first round of mural theme topics. 

“It felt like they heard folks,” said Portela. “It also sounded like they were trying to be more inclusive. It was more like they weren’t sure what to include or who to ask.”

Here is the final mural themes selection list. Click on a theme to learn more about it.

To vote for your favorite mural themes online click here.

1. Honald Sign Co

2. H. L. Davis, Pulitzer Prize Winner from The Dalles

3. Ben Snipes

4. Benjamin GIfford

5. The Dalles Dip, Summer Swimming Hole in the Columbia River

6. Marie Equi, MD Lesbian Suffragist (read more)

7. The Dalles Ferry Boat

8. Heidelberg Brewery

9. The Great Fire of 1891

10. The Dalles Floods

11. First Foods, Sacred Foods in the Native American Tradition

12. The Early Explorers

13. The Latino Community

14. Ernie Kuck

15. The Dalles Celilo Canal

16. Eleanor Borg

17. Sylvia Thompson

18. Thomas Condon

19. Dr. Joseph Tamura

20. The Historic Columbia Highway 1912 and 1913

21. The Chinese Community (selected in round one of public input)

22. Jeanne Hillis, Artist, Pilot, Preservationist (selected in round one of public input)

23. The Dalles Sorosis Club (read more)(selected in round one of public input)

24. Chief Tommy Thompson (selected in round one of public input)

25. How The Dalles Got Its Name (selected in round one of public input)