OBSERVER Photo by Andrew David Kuczkowski: Gowanda High School students stand in front of a mural that is being restored at the Historic Hollywood Theater in Gowanda. Brett Swiatek, far left, taught the students how he will restore the mural.

GOWANDA — The Historic Hollywood Theater is combining two things while its restoration comes to fruition: education and painting. There are two murals in the theater’s seating area on the far right and left that are being redone; however, this is not easy work.

With $14,800 in grant funds from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Swiatek Studios, of Buffalo, got to work restoring the murals back to their original images. Deb Harris, Hollywood Theater’s project coordinator, asked the Gowanda High School to bring its art students to the theater and had Swiatek Studios teach the class about art restoration.

“We just had an art show from the high school through the elementary school and I said, ‘Would any of your students be interested in what somebody does for a living, restoring this beautiful art?’ And that’s what you just saw. Eighteen kids wanted to be here and see how this was done,” Harris said.

For Brett Swiatek, of Swiatek Studios, working at the theater is what he is accustomed to. He has been travelling the northeast of the United States restoring painted artwork in churches and other historic buildings. At times, he works on just one piece for a whole a year, painstakingly bringing murals back to life. He is planning on being in Gowanda for two months.

The murals won’t be done in short order. Cleaning off the cigarette smoke residue, dust and debris alone is an onerous task and to do a tiny 8-by-5-inch square was a five-hour job.

“I think it’s humbling knowing the age and the significance that this theater has to the community, so to bear the responsibility of its restoration, it’s very gratifying and humbling at the same time,” Swiatek said.

The high school’s students learned how the specifics mean so much, since restoring the oil paintings is no scrub-and-paint process. Swiatek would have done it in front of the students, but the intense smells of the chemicals needed are not safe to inhale without protective equipment.

“The teachers were just as enthusiastic because they got to see real-world applications. You’re not just sitting in class drawing a picture,” Harris said.

The community eagerly awaits not only the restored murals, but the effect the entirely restored theater will have on guests someday very soon.

Email: Akuczkowski@observertoday.com

Twitter: @Kuczkowski95