In early 2026, a downtown mural inspired by the work of Ozarks artist Robert E. Smith was painted over. A public outcry over the loss of a fragment of the city's local culture followed, as did fundraising efforts to bring it back. Since then, plans have been developing to recreate the artwork and continue to celebrate Smith's work.
Shortly after the mural was covered, Jesse Tyler, co-owner of All True and partner with SGFCO, alongside downtown business owner Nicole Brown, began efforts to bring the mural back to the downtown scene. After the Springfield community raised more than $17,000 through a GoFundMe campaign, Tyler said work has been ongoing to select the artists and a location to recreate the artwork. In addition to the more than 80 individual
donations received, the project was able to secure a sponsorship from the Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District.
"It was a definitely a shared effort by a lot of people who all just really valued his [Smith's] work and the thought of not having his work in a visible space downtown anymore just wasn't a reality we wanted to live with," Tyler said.
The mural will be recreated on the west-facing wall of 338 N. Boonville Ave. (about a block north of Park Central Square) by local mural artists Christine Riutzel and Meg Wagler. The location will tie into the eastern-most part of the Renew Jordan Creek effort to revitalize this part of downtown and create more greenspace. The building is owned by Clan MacQuarrie LLC, according to the Greene County Assessor's database.
Wagler and Riutzel were selected as the artists from a pool of roughly five or six qualified proposal submissions, Tyler said. Both have years of experience creating high-quality visible work around Springfield and have previously collaborated on projects.
Tyler said a lot of the preparation work included tracking down the original artwork by Smith that depicted downtown Springfield as the artist knew it in 1975. Riutzel and Wagler have studied Smith's style and referenced both his artwork and photos of the original mural installed by Ben Bunch and Ryan Thayer in 2000, according to previous News-Leader reporting.
While several downtown property owners responded to calls to find a new location for the mural, Tyler said the challenge lay in finding a large enough continuous wall that did not require repairs and that could support long-term maintenance.
The mural was previously located at 400 W. Walnut St., property bought and now owned by David Pere through FUBAR HQ LLC. After the mural was covered, Pere, who was at the time preparing to open his own business at the location, installed a different, veteran-inspired mural. Tyler said Pere also contributed support to recreation of the Smith-inspired mural.
Preparation work is currently underway, and Tyler said Wagler and Riutzel will begin creating the mural in October. Weather and site conditions allowing, he said, the actual painting should take less than two weeks. The goal is to have the project completed in time for the First Friday Art Walk in November.
With maintenance and longevity top of mind, Tyler said, a maintenance plan has been created in agreement with the building owner with funds set aside for maintenance for the next 10 years.
Tyler said that through the shared effort to bring the mural back, he learned much more about Smith and his work once the mural was gone. He hopes the recreation of the artwork highlights Smith's contributions once again.
"There is an opportunity now for us to I think, talk about and look at Robert's work again in a way that hasn't happened in maybe 15 years," Tyler said. "What I want is that people would be revisiting his work. People in town have that work, that they would be showing it off, talking about it, and we could be celebrating him again."
Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Have feedback, tips or story ideas? Contact her at mmieze@news-leader.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield mural inspired by Robert E. Smith will be recreated
