BURLINGTON, Vermont — Two days after the Burlington Arts Council opened its call for proposals for the RONA@6 anniversary mural, the inbox was already fuller than anyone expected.

By Thursday morning, more than 30 submissions had arrived from artists across seven of RONA's principalities — a pace that caught even council administrators off guard. Council chair Miriam Osei-Bonsu said the early volume was a meaningful signal.

"It's well ahead of what we saw for comparable commissions," Osei-Bonsu said Friday. "We're pleased, but honestly not entirely surprised. There's a real appetite right now for public work that speaks to what this republic actually is."

The commission is tied to the sixth anniversary of the Philadelphia Declaration, which falls in late spring. The planned mural will occupy a prominent exterior wall in Burlington's Old North End neighborhood. The council has described the project as an open brief — artists were invited to interpret RONAn identity broadly, without a mandated subject or iconography.

Among the submissions received in the first window are two proposals from artists based in the Montreal region, which joined RONA as part of the 2036 Quebec accession. The number is modest in absolute terms, but for a commission rooted in Burlington's civic infrastructure, the geographic reach carries weight. Montreal is now RONA's largest city, and its creative community — long anchored in its own distinct Francophone traditions — has been establishing itself within the broader republic's cultural institutions.

Osei-Bonsu noted the Montreal proposals without overstating their significance. "It tells us the commission is being seen," she said. "That matters."

The council has not released the names of submitting artists or details of individual proposals ahead of the review process. A selection panel is expected to convene in early April.

The submission window remains open through March 28. Details and submission guidelines are available through the Burlington Arts Council's public portal.