A glowing scene
Stained glass mural donated to City Hall
By Taylor Hale
STEVENS POINT – City hall just received a new piece of art. Local artist and business owner Michael White donated a stained glass mural depicting the downtown square and water fountain, featuring the iconic architecture that lines Main Street to the city.
While eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family, the local artists decided he wanted to give back to the city.
“We were sitting around on Thanksgiving and thought, ‘we should probably do something for the city.’ That was it. That’s how the project started,” White said.
White is the owner of Stevens Point Stained Glass Company. The colorful stained glass boasts over 150 pieces of glass hand-selected and assembled by White.
He delivered the project to Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza on Jan. 7.
The piece is set to be displayed in the conference room at city hall, visible from both inside and outside the building.
“It’s a pretty rare occurrence. Mike (White) and I have known each other forever, so it was cool. He threw the idea out there, but I had no idea it would be so significantly tied to downtown Stevens Point,” Wiza said.
White has been an artist his entire life but first tried his hand at stained glass roughly eight years ago, after his aunt passed away and left him the tools of the trade.
“She did stained glass as a hobby in her basement. Her children were not interested in any of the equipment, so she left it to me. Before she passed, she also gave me a few tips,” he recalled.
Almost a decade later, White is a glass designer with dozens of pieces under his belt. He opened Stevens Point Stained Glass Company in 2017. The business went full time right as COVID hit in 2019.
White said that the longest part of the process was finding what to create and planning out the lines.
“I tried to find what Stevens Point is in an image,” White explained.
He settled on the downtown square and began working. Once he had finished planning, assembly only took three days.
“It made me think of the farmers market before people set up, and the fountain is on. The sun isn’t quite over the horizon yet, but it’s morning. And the faces of those buildings are just kind of iconic,” White explained.
To learn more about Stevens Point Stained Glass Company, find them out on Facebook.