Artist scraps plans for Thunberg mural after boycott threats

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota artist said Wednesday he has scrapped his plans for a mural honoring Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg following boycott threats against a Bismarck business that would have featured the outdoor image.

Shane Balkowitsch had planned to put a 7-foot-tall (2.1-meter tall) mural of Thunberg on the brick exterior wall of a bakery. Balkowitsch of the teenage climate activist when she visited the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in October.

Balkowitsch told he saw the planned mural as a celebration of art, not a dig at oil or coal companies in North Dakota. But after threats of boycotts and possible vandalism appeared when KFYR-TV posted a story about the planned mural on its page Tuesday, Balkowitsch said Wednesday he pulled his application with the city.

“There was no motivation other than install a very important piece of history that was captured here in North Dakota, in Bismarck, but I guess Bismarck doesn’t want it,” Balkowitsch said.

Balkowitsch had secured permission for the mural from the bakery and the building owner. City planning staff had recommended approval, according to city documents. The Renaissance Zone Authority, acting as the Downtown Design Review Committee, was poised to give it final approval Thursday.

“I feel for the bakery,” Balkowitsch said. “I can’t have some business being threatened for my work.”

In a statement, Brick Oven Bakery owners Steven and Sandy Jacobson said they had asked their landlord not to allow use of the building wall for the mural, “after we realized the emotional impact that this photo may cause.”

According to a city staff analysis, the planned mural would have been made from two panels of thin aluminum composite with digitally printed and clear-coated graphics. The panels would have been mounted directly to the wall with decorative screw covers over the fasteners.

At 16, Thunberg was Time magazine’s youngest . Balkowitsch donated his photograph of Thunberg looking into the distance during her visit to Standing Rock in southern North Dakota to the Library of Congress in Washington. The Dakota Access pipeline near the reservation before it was completed and began moving oil in 2017.

Balkowitsch said he is seeking another venue for the mural, and not necessarily in his hometown of Bismarck.

“I have to rethink everything,” he said.