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Date: 3/2/2022
HADLEY – Calling all artists and ice cream lovers, Maple Valley’s Scoop at the Silos is taking submissions to create a mural for the side of their new cooler wall with the winning artist receiving $500 and a donation of $500 to a cause of their choice.
Last summer the addition of a walk-in cooler with glass doors on the inside of the store left a big open wall on the outside of the building. Partners Bruce Jenks and Kristin Mayer began brainstorming on how to fill the space.
“When we had this wall present itself, my partner Kris and I were standing in the yard looking at it last fall and saying, ‘boy that’s ugly.’ I mean its brand new, but its not attractive,” Jenks said. “I said, alright lets figure out a way we can use that to benefit the community and to have a message and let people know we are here for any artist.”
Jenks and Mayer decided to offer a contest for artists to submit an idea for a mural to cover the 8 ½-foot tall and 13 ½ -foot long wall. Email design submissions are being taken at Sales@maplevalleycreamery.com until mid-March where they will then be put online to be voted on by the community to decide.
Jenks says they use online voting to name their calves and it will be a similar system to that. The artist, art student, or art class that is chosen for the mural will take home the $500 prize and a charity donation of the same amount.
“Whether it be their school or whatever they decide to spend that extra money on, we wanted to benefit the artist as well. If they have a particular cause whether its in the arts or the humanities or whatever it may be, they can pick it themselves,” said Jenks. “That was something we just wanted to do on top of supporting the artist that comes out.”
Jenks added that the winner of the mural contest will have their materials supplied to them. The mural will be painted on a medium canvas and be attached to the side of the cooler because of the difficulties of painting right on the vertical cooler wall.
The theme the Scoop at the Silos is looking for is a postcard theme that reflects what you would see from the Hadley, the scoop shop, or in Massachusetts. Jenks said there have been talented and funny submissions so far and he has been surprised by the reception it’s gotten on Facebook.
Jenks added while he hopes a local artist ends up wining through the contest, that they hope to feature of the artists work in the Mill Valley Market store and have patrons of the scoop be able to watch the winning artist work and see the process leading to going up on the cooler wall.
Jenks feels this is something that the Scoop at the Silos team will continue to do for years to come and have a new winner each year. He said previous winners work can be saved as it is going on a canvas attached to the wall.
“The painting wont get lost in the mix, it’s going to be a pretty good feature for our scoop shop,” Jenks said.
The Scoop at the Silos, which opens later this spring and seven-days-a-week after Memorial Day 2020. Jenks said the change of pace in everyday life allowed for them to create the ice cream shop addition.
“During COVID[-19] we built our scoop shop because we had time,” Jenks said with a laugh. “Not a lot was going on.”
As the weather warmed up, Jenks was approached by his brother, who plays in a band, who suggested they use the outdoor area for live music performances because of the lack of venues allowing indoor performances. Jenks was very open to the idea as he built a small stage with a tent overhang and had an outdoor music performance the first weekend it was open.
Jenks said for the whole summer they were a place that welcomed live performers with open arms and paid them for their performances. A year later with things not quite in the same spot regarding pandemic restrictions Jenks thought the summer before might’ve been a one-hit wonder.
“Year two I said to Kris, ‘I bet none of these musicians are gonna come back out now because every brewery’s open and there’s festivals,’ and wouldn’t you know it, all of them called and wanted to know when they could play and they loved playing out here,” Jenks said. “I think they liked that we supported that genre of art, music.”
Jenks didn’t stop there as the space of the Maple Valley Market and the Scoop was just a blank canvas for outdoor community activities. With one of their employees also working as a yoga instructor, the pandemic made it difficult for him to hold classes. Jenks allowed him to use land by the barn to do yoga with the cows. He said that during the Saturday morning yoga classes he would see 35to 40 people make it out.
He added that the scoop shop would have days of celebration for different community members such as medical workers, teachers, law enforcement and others to receive free ice cream to bring together the community.
“It really was a cool thing to see,” Jenks said. “Because our store is open every day because we sell fresh raw milk, we wanted folks to have the opportunity to do things here with their family as well, with enough distance and with all the COVID restrictions that were in place, we followed along and did our part in that,” Jenks said.
Jenks said these events will continue this summer when the Scoop at the Silos opens and he hopes to have more community members back to hang out outdoors in the community, and this year with a postcard backdrop on site.