 The historic Brainerd Water Tower was built nearly 100 years ago and it serves as a central landmark for the city. To celebrate the tower's history, the Brainerd Public Library hosted a canvas art contest where artists submitted their depictions of the landmark. The public voted on submissions back in April to determine a people's choice winner. After the contest, local businesses wanted to display the artwork and now depictions of the water tower can be seen in eight different shops throughout downtown Brainerd. I just assumed that everybody would be interested in hanging it up and the artists really were excited to have their work displayed throughout the community too. They really were quite surprised that it's going to happen and yeah, it was just a good response overall. With nearly 60 submissions, the library plans on hosting a similar contest with another landmark as the subject next year. The artist as young as 13 participated with creations from pencil drawings to collage work. But the people's choice winner went to the painting by Kelly Street who said she hadn't created art in seven years. I didn't know a lot about the water tower so I did some research and I came across that it was referred to as Paul Bunyan's cup and his flashlight. So I thought the flashlight kind of provided a more whimsical representation of it. So I went with that concept. The artwork will be on display in downtown Brainerd until the end of July. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.