By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Although you might still catch a whiff of petroleum in the air around exit 4 in South Portland, the Maine Center for Creativity’s “Art All Around” project could make Sprague Energy’s oil tank facility on the Fore River a little easier on the eyes. The Maine Center for Creativity is currently accepting artistic designs to cover 16 of the 30 oil tanks at the farm.

In 2006, the Maine Center for Creativity’s Executive Director Jean Maginnis was walking in Bug Light Park with her husband when she noticed the expanse of white walled tanks at the nearby Gulf Oil terminal.

“It was an inspirational moment,” she said. “I was just admiring their beauty and immediately started thinking about the possibilities.”

Maginnis is no stranger to public displays of creativity, as the non-profit organization has sponsored events ranging from a six-story high digital art presentation on the façade of the Cousins Island power plant to hosting seminars on intellectual property with the Center for Law and Innovation.

“It’s art and industry in collaboration doing unique things to benefit our community,” Maginnis said.  

Maginnis said it has taken the Maine Center for Creativity two years to arrange volunteer, professional and legal efforts to get to this point in the project.

“We’re not a large corporation, everyone had to come together as volunteers,” she said. “It’s about persistence.”

Andrew Lunch, a representative for Sprague Energies, said the company has been supportive of the project, but relied on the Maine Center for Creativity to make all the pieces fit together.

“We’re just really providing the physical backdrop,” he said.

Sprague’s tank farm was chosen over other locations for its proximity to the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge and beneath the flight path of planes landing at Portland International Jetport so the tanks will be seen from land, sea and air.

“They really wanted a location with a lot of viewership, and we thought it was perfect,” Lunch said.

It will take an estimated 4,500 gallons of heavy-duty industrial paint to entirely cover eight tanks and only the sides of eight others. 

A group of professional painters will apply the paint to the nearly 260,000 square foot “canvas,” Maginnis said. 

“We’re campaigning for $1.2 million for the entire project,” she said, noting the funds would come from grants and contributions. “It’s expensive.”

Artists are allowed to use up to six of the 45 colors available in designing a paint scheme for the tanks, although they may only cover 25 percent of the tanks with some colors that require multiple coats. 

Submissions will be entered into an anonymous contest, of which five finalists will be selected and their designs shared with the public in August, Maginnis said.

“It’s really a call to anyone in the community to give us their ideas,” she said.

Once a design is selected, the winning artist will begin working closely with the paint engineers during the painting process, Maginnis said.

Due to the safety requirements of the facility, Lunch said Sprague has been active in connecting paint contractors with the program.

“We are an oil tank farm, security is of the utmost importance,” he said. 

Weather permitting, the project could be completed by the summer of 2011 and is estimated to last up to 20 years. 

For more information on the Maine Center for Creativity or their “Art All Around” project visit  www.mainecenterforcreativity.org.