After a significant amount of public pushback, it seems possible that the famed ‘Hyperview’ mural might be here to stay.
                                 Pat Kernan | Times Leader

After a significant amount of public pushback, it seems possible that the famed ‘Hyperview’ mural might be here to stay.

Pat Kernan | Times Leader

Billboard supports removed from Wilkes-Barre mural

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WILKES-BARRE — After a significant amount of public pushback, it seems possible that the famed “Hyperview” mural might be here to stay.

The mural, painted on a wall of the building occupying 91 to 93 South Main St. in the city, has become a “pilgrimage” location for fans of Kingston-based punk band Title Fight. The mural, painted as part of the promotion for their 2015 record “Hyperview.”

Fans of the group online were incensed over the weekend of July 17 through 18 after the first supports for a new vertical billboard that would cover the piece were put up. Now though, as of July 27, the supports on the lower half of the wall that would have covered the mural have been removed.

The billboard was being installed by Barletta Outdoor Media LLC.

Ashton Znaniecki, 27, is an artist who is currently based in Boston but has family in the Wilkes-Barre area and lived here for some years. When word first started to spread of the billboard, Znaniecki started an Instagram account under the handle @savehyperview.

While Znaniecki did not respond to new requests for comment, he posted on the Instagram page a series of updates, saying there had been a meeting last week regarding the fate of the mural, with the mayor’s office, members of the band and other downtown-related officials getting involved.

“Basically, everyone was unified against covering the mural and made it super clear how important the mural was to so many people and to local art,” a post on the account read. “We’ve been waiting to see what decision (Barletta Outdoor Media) made, and now here we are.”

A representative from Mayor George Brown’s office on Tuesday indicated that such meetings had indeed occurred, but the statement given did not speak to specific details.

“Mayor George C. Brown has been in constructive conversations with the necessary parties/individuals,” the statement reads in full. “The outlook from the conversations is hopeful.”

It’s unclear, though, what will happen to the mural from here.