Commission discusses restoration plan for John Stewart Curry WPA murals; agrees to pursue photos, quotes and grants

Commission members and preservation volunteers laid out an initial plan to assess and pursue restoration of WPA-era murals by John Stewart Curry that hang in one of the city’s performance spaces.

Mark Allen introduced the proposal and said the murals were not restored with the rest of the city’s collection. Todd Bryant, who has researched the works, described the murals and offered to help photograph them to a high standard so specialist conservators could provide cost estimates remotely. He said conservators he knows in the Hudson Valley have experience with WPA work and could provide credible quotes without immediately traveling to Norwalk.

Commissioners asked about funding and the appropriate lead organization. Todd and others suggested a mix of strategies: seek grants that occasionally cover WPA restoration, solicit modest local sponsorship (with tasteful credit), and coordinate with the Norwalk Historical Society and the city’s existing public-art inventory effort. Melissa Matusa and others raised organizational boundaries: the arts commission typically oversees post‑1950 art while historical organizations retain collections like WPA pieces; staff said inventory funding has been approved by the Board of Estimates and Taxation and could proceed alongside restoration planning.

The commission agreed to convene a small working group to photograph the murals and to gather documentation already collected by local volunteers. Todd noted he had dropped off historical documents with staff and offered to share photos and local contacts. Staff and commissioners emphasized doing the inventory and restoration planning in parallel, and to look for grant opportunities and local sponsorship to fund any conservation work.

What’s next: volunteers and interested commissioners will meet offline to coordinate photos, examine the inventory budget and pursue grant or sponsorship options; staff will make archival documents available to the working group.