Mural coming to Alma building in downtown Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The tallest residential building downtown Mankato is getting a new look, but it’s not your typical upgrade.

A St. Paul artist is creating a mural that will cover the southeast side of the eight-story building. It’s so much more than the bright colors. It’s rich with Mankato history.

“Day one, I was into art,” Kada Goalen said.

Kada Goalen always had the opportunity to make art a hobby as her mother taught the subject.

“And then decided to go to school for art,” she said.

It certainly stuck with her.

“Study in Italy for art and then that started me on this wonderful path,” Goalen said.

Goalen has been a professional artist for 25 years and even opened her own business, Kada Creative Company. Now, she paints murals all over the U.S. and beyond.

“Serendipitously came to me, so,” she said.

Goalen was asked to do the project by property owner of The Alma apartments, -previously Walnut towers- Trellis company. She’s spent seven days working on the mural downtown Mankato and has about a week to go.

Most of that time, she’s been bringing the city’s landscapes into the project, inspired by the Minnesota River and even the evening skies.

“That is the river of Mankato so I definitely wanted to bring the local flora and fauna into this mural. It’s going to have even more life and color and beauty so, I’m really excited about that,” Golen said.

Although Goalen is already adding local scenery to the mural, there is a bigger story behind pieces of the project. It comes from a woman named Alma Wagen, the first female mountain guide in North America, who happens to be from Mankato.

“She had a real propensity to climb and to do things and there were no mountains here and so she would climb windmills and so that’s -she wanted to be up in the clouds with birds, that’s what she said,” Goalen said.

Goalen says the community, hope and Alma Wagen all influenced the colors and imagery, and bring meaning to this mural.

“It’s a -the story of it is um, very inspiring, so,” she said.

Click here to download the KEYC News Now app or our KEYC First Alert weather app.