Three new murals to take shape in Longview this summer

Longview’s public art nonprofit Broad Strokes Project will have a busy summer, with two murals in downtown Longview and a partnership with a local primate sanctuary.

Work started on the second phase of the mural on the Pounder Building on Wednesday. A pair of Portland artists known as Rather Severe added a swirl of flowers and vegetation to the left of the bear that was painted last fall.

Both pieces of the Pounder Building mural were announced in 2022, Broad Strokes organizer Liz Borders said, but were done at different times to give the nonprofit extra fundraising time.

Broad Strokes Project announced last week that a mural would be painted later this summer on the CORE Health building along the side facing Broadway Street. The mural will be created by Jubilee and Luke Riley, a married couple of artists from Kelso.

The concept art for the CORE Health mural is a mountain scene awash with the purple and orange of a sunset, as well as a silhouetted elk. Work on the mural is expected to start around the beginning of August.

Far outside the downtown corridor, work is to begin Wednesday on a mural partnership with the OPR Coastal Primate Sanctuary, located west of Coal Creek. Borders said volunteer artists will begin decorating one of the barns housing the monkeys to make the space more engaging for the animals and raise awareness of the work done by the local animal sanctuary.

“It’s been a joyful and cooperative pursuit,” Borders wrote to The Daily News. “It is deeply rewarding to contribute to making downtown Longview a destination to shop, eat, work, and live.”