Murals have been around for centuries, first telling stories on the sides of caves and later decorating unsightly buildings. But in our modern day, they’re are also used as community development tools.
Some murals, like the one depicting a street scene in
REO Town painted by
Tony Hendrick, are outside buildings, while others, like the one at the South Lansing branch of the
Capital Area District Library (CADL), are inside.
Some are huge, like the brightly colored one at
Emil’s Restaurant on east Michigan Avenue.
And some are long and thin like the math, science and technology-inspired, eight-inch by 60-foot-long strip
Paloma Rosales painted at
Wood Creek Elementary School.
But the mural trend no longer resides with one or two muralists per project. Murals are now often completed in groups, with 10 or even 200 painters, many of whom have never touched a brush.
This collaborative type of mural painting is visible all over Lansing, from
Old Town to the Southside, and painting them often involves bringing disparate groups together to create a work of art.
Now a group of Capital region residents is talking about creating a program that would facilitate mural painting across Lansing. The project could mirror Philadelphia’s
Mural Arts Program, a 25-year-old program that boasts more than 8,000 murals. It started as a graffiti-stopping measure, but now is a program that fights crime, organizes neighborhoods, draws tourist dollars and spurs partnerships with all the arts.
The First StrokeHow can slapping a glob or two of paint on a crumbling wall change a neighborhood?
The mural project underway at Lansing's
Potter Park Zoo demonstrates the concept: it requires a vision, a sponsor, an artist/organizer and lots of workers.
To celebrate a new farm animal exhibit, zoo staff hired Hendrick and the mural project's organizer, Mary Katherine Quasarano, to develop a community collaboration project. It's funded by $10,000 provided by
L & L Food Centers and the zoo.
Hendric and Quasarano solicited farm animal drawings from the public, a search that yielded 150 entries. Eleven drawings were selected, including one from a six-year-old who drew hatching chicks. Hendrick massaged the drawings onto four-by-eight-foot wood panels. Then, 120 people of all ages divided into six workshops and painted the murals. They’ll be unveiled at the next Zoo Days in June and will hang from the farm animal building.
Hendrick says mural painting requires artists to let go of ownership. One person may work on one area of the mural only to find someone else working in that area the next day.
“It’s where compassion comes from and it’s the beginning of letting go of rigid definitions,” he says. This also frees artists from feeling responsible for one area of the mural.
While Hendrick, 40, is an accomplished artist in his own right, having made it into
Grand Rapids’ first Art Prize competition last year. When he’s leading a mural project he becomes a facilitator, hopefully inspiring others to tap into their own art.
“It’s a funny thing. Focusing many people’s energy breathes life into a mural, creating a shared, healing experience,” Hendrick says. “There’s a lot of instability in the world now. We can gain strength by connecting with each other.”
Human ConnectionErika Majers, 30, knows about creating murals to connect people. She has worked with many audiences in her 10 years in Lansing. Her day job is as at a youth shelter run by
Gateway Community Services. But she also manages to lead mural projects, including one at
Riddle Elementary School through the
Northwest Initiative’s Garden Project, and the
Southside Community Coalition’s collection of murals, some of which the kids helped design.
“Working on something so big can change how you think,” Majers says. And people tend to loosen boundaries when they’re creating something together. The painters also pick up basic job skills, like showing up on time and consistently, showing considerate care for co-workers, and following directions.
Last year, Majers worked with two young women who were paid through Michigan Works! youth grants. Majers taught the woman about mural-painting and gave them the opportunity to participate in their first mural project.
Lansing’s Fourth Ward Councilman, Jessica Yorko, says an organized mural program can beautify the city while training young people to paint and utilize real world job skills.
“I feel strongly Lansing needs more pretty,” Yorko says. But she also suggests there’s a broader need. “While we don’t have a big graffiti problem here, our kids need opportunities for self expression.”
During her election campaign, Yorko, 30, got a letter from a vocational school student saying teens need more free things to do that teach job skills. So, Yorko, Leslie Donaldson of the
Lansing Arts Council, Majers and others are pushing to create a mural program in Lansing.
Creating a public art program is not simple, Donaldson says. On average, a mural costs about $20,000. Funding, liability issues, long term care of the murals are just of few of the complexities.
The Philadelphia program has already cleared those hurdles, and Majers has considered hanging it up here and heading for Philly.
“But there is so much talent here—music, art, writing,” she says. “People in Lansing are starting to look at different ways of living. Our economy crashed before the rest of the country’s, so we’ve had a head start on recovering. People are riding bikes and considering healthier lifestyles. Urban gardening and community gardening are growing. There’s just an explosion here of new ideas.
"Yes, I could run away to Philly," she says. "But I feel I need to be one of the people to keep pushing things here. I need to stay here and try to make this mural thing happen.”
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Gretchen Cochran has seen the
Irish murals and many of those in Philadelphia. In both cases the stories they tell capture the heart of the cities and the people living in them.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Mural at Lansing's Black Child & Family Institute
Tony Hendrick gives some beginning instruction at Potter Park Zoo's mural paint project
Painting the Potter Park project
An Old Town mural
Erica Majers with one of her murals in Old Town
REO Town mural
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie