No artistic talent is needed to help a group of local artists freshen up the School Bus Graveyard in Alto next week - but the team is asking for monetary donations to help cover the costs of the annual paint job.
This year is the eighth year of painting the buses, according to organizer and artist Nick Morris. He said he hopes the community members who love the public art installation will share that with the artists this year while they work on the project.
"The main thing we're asking for is paint money," said Morris. "You could give five dollars or a thousand dollars. On our website there's some perks, like if you give $500 you get a little plaque for your business that says 'We support School Bus Graveyard.' Mainly, we just want paint and encouragement from people."
Morris, a Habersham County native, asked anyone who wants to donate to use their website. [That form is here.] He said while they appreciate people want to offer physical items, they are currently only accepting monetary donations.
Morris said the donations will also cover food and beverages, as well as items to make the visiting artists more comfortable at the site.
"For the last seven years we haven't asked for anything, it's just been all me and my wife, just buying paint and buying food for everybody, and it's just kind of gotten expensive. We just wanted to see, if the community does actually appreciate it, so we just started putting it out there asking for donations for paint, drinks, firewood or volunteers or whatever. Just anybody who wanted to help do anything," Morris said.
Regular commuters on Highway 365 in Habersham County have seen the mysterious conglomeration of painted school buses on top of a hill. The buses were lined up to create a fence for the junkyard behind it but became an art installation when Morris asked the Wade family, who owns the property, if he could paint one. Now, a team of artists joins him each year to keep the buses fresh.
"There are about 15 buses that face the interstate, so we're going to repaint all of those - we may save two of them - so for the most part, it will be completely different. I think we have close to 20 people coming. Not everybody will get to paint on the outside, but it will definitely look completely different than it does today." Morris said.
Morris said they plan to paint on Tuesday, however they may end up spending more than one day there.
"We do it mostly so people, mainly kids, have something to look at, because that's a pretty boring stretch of highway and in a kid's mind that's a pretty boring part of town," said Morris. "These days people are always on their phones and occupied in other ways and I think it's just a really great thing to see in the middle of nowhere. You're just not expecting it and I just think it's really cool."
The bus graveyard is located on private property at Highway 365 and Alonzo Wade Road.
