The Sartell Paper Mill Art Project Continues to Move Forward [VIDEO]

SARTELL - Heidi Jeub of the Sartell Paper Mill Art Project says the memorials to the mill are coming along with the help of Northside Welding.

"We've been able to bring in the pieces, and each individually work on them or at least have them cut it apart and make it happen. Each on of us had a different way of approaching the project."

Along with Jeub, Joe Schulte and Christopher Zlatic, among other artists have been working on their contributions to the project.

Schulte says, "The city needed some bike racks, and we started humbly with that and I got the idea to incorporate some materials from the paper mill into the bike racks, to do some abstract art with it."

Schulte also is working on a skyline of where the paper mill once stood where a photo from the 1950's paper mill was merged with a photo of the paper mill from 2013 with the help of Midway Iron.

"The idea behind this is you can actually line up this bridge with the actual existing bridge that's there, and replicate the skyline," says Schulte.

Zlatic is working on a piece involving light, and the caps for steam dryers from the mill.

"As these caps face each other they will admit light towards each other creating an implied cylinder replicating that drying cylinder," says Zlatic.

There has been a crowd sourcing campaign started to raise funds for the installation of these art projects.

Jeub says, "We have a crowd sourcing campaign on indiegogo.com allowing us to fill in that cap that was primarily cement and footing. The foundation is probably the least romantic of the entire process but is the most instrumental of making it last one hundred plus years."

The goal is to raise $7,000. For those who donate, there are incentives.

Schulte says, "We realize there's some value in giving something back to people. For a $250 sponsorship you get an engraved yellow brick from the building, $50 level we are doing a welding workshop where you will make one of the smokestacks into something you want. We'll get you welding."

He says the goal is to get people involved with the project.

Jeub, Schulte, and Zlatic all hope these projects will be a remembrance for people about the mill.

"I'm hoping people will really get into that and will want to interact with the space and meditate on the mill, remember the mill," says Zlatic.

"We're trying to take a 100 year vision on this, that if these pieces were still around 100 years from now, that's the kind of legacy we should try to retain in our city, that we were a mill town; we can still be a mill town," says Schulte.