Helena selects Centennial Trail muralist, awards funds

Nolan Lister

The Helena City Commission and Helena Public Art Committee commissioned a local artist to paint a new mural inside a Centennial Trail tunnel.

City officials Monday approved the spending of $15,000 from HPAC’s fiscal year 2023 capital expense budget to fund the project.

Among 13 qualified submissions, committee members selected Elise Perpignano’s proposal, one of bright oranges, blues and greens with iconography celebrating the area’s Native and railroad traditions reminiscent of old post cards or National Park Service posters.

“Hints of the past are sprinkled everywhere I look, and although I never had the opportunity to experience many of the bygones that have made Helena so vibrant, there’s a celebratory nostalgia that blankets the entire city and drives it forward,” Perpignano said in her submission letter.

Her resume includes two bachelor of fine arts degrees in graphic design and studio arts from Montana State University and two years of work at Bozeman’s Sundog Fine Art Gallery.

People are also reading…

She stated in the letter her source of inspiration for the design is Winold Reiss, a portrait artist who worked for the Great Northern Railroad in the early- to mid-1900s.

“I borrowed

View Source