PITTSTON — In July, visitors to Pittston will see the beginning of the latest addition to a downtown that seems to be growing more scenic each year.
Pittston’s Downtown Business Improvement District, an arm of the city’s redevelopment authority, unveiled the first glimpses of the Inspiration Mural Thursday night at the Palazzo 53 restaurant.
The five story mural will overlook the Pittston Tomato Festival lot on the south side of the Newrose Building which sits on the corner of Main Street and Tomato Festival Drive. Former mayor and current Vice Chairman of the Pittston Redevelopment Authority Michael Lombardo, explained that the mural will be the third largest in Pennsylvania.
Created by noted muralist Michael Pilato, the artwork will be a representation of a building front featuring a café scene populated notable Pittstonians, past and present.
Pilato, who has recently worked with Burmese Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has had dozens of murals erected throughout the world, but noted that this mural will be unique in that it is interactive.
He used an example of one of the many people featured in the mural.
“Shawn Klush is the greatest Elvis tribute artist,” Pilato explained. “People will be able to walk up to the mural with their cell phone cameras, tap on pictures of the mural and hear words from Klush. It can even be updated so that he can say where he’ll be playing if he wants.”
Plans are also in the works to have information from the mural be compatible with Microsoft Hololens.
Others featured on the mural will be Pittston’s Lois Reed, otherwise known as “Miss Judy” of Hatchy Milatchy and former football great Charley Trippi. The mural will also feature individuals from beyond Pittston, like Wilkes-Barre sculptor Edgar Patience and football coaching legend Joe Paterno, who was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Themes of honor, humility and surprise were commonly brought up by those featured in the mural. Ace Brogna, an athletic mainstay throughout northeastern Pennsylvania over the past 60 years, feels he was likely honored due to the impact he has had on the many people he has coached over the years. Brogna always made community service a cornerstone of his coaching philosophy.
Gloria Adonizio Blandina, director of the Care and Concern Free Health Clinic, stated that she never expected to be featured on a mural.
“I’m very humbled and overwhelmed by the kindness of people,” she said before adding how special it is to have this happen while her 92-year-old mother Helen Adonizio is still around to see the mural.
Likewise, Biagio Dente, who was born and raised in Pittston, must have walked by the Newrose building thousands of times but never thought his likeness would be painted there.
Dente, of Dente’s Catering, is one of only 80 chefs featured in the Academy of Chefs’ Hall of Fame. He was a key figure in establishing the Pittston Tomato Festival and his column, Table Talk, was formerly run in the Sunday Dispatch.
Roughly 80 percent of the mural’s approximate $100,000 cost is being funded by private donors. A portion of the proceeds derived from the night’s celebration of the mural will be donated to the project.
Pittston has over 40 pieces of public art displayed throughout the city.
