Community Mural Projects
A art mural project brings the community together, celebrates a shared space, and gives people of all ages a structured opportunity to collaborate on a shared vision while gaining confidence developing art skills. During my mural workshops, I lead people of all ages through steps of a process that empower them with new art skills and encourage them to confidently express their own vision while contributing to the whole.
Contact me if you would like me to lead a mural workshop for your school. or organization.
Solidarity and Liberation Mural, Wah Kung Fu & Taichi Academy, 2020, Malden. I helped advise Wah Lum mural organizers to formulate a plan for artists to add overlapping images to the mural in their own personal styles, so that artists could have freedom to respond to eachother’s creativity and form a collaborative painted collage celebrating and building on everyone’s strengths, and allowing them to maintain physical and temporal distance during the pandemic. I also designed and painted the background clouds myself. So fun!
We Cannot Walk Alone, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Mural, PJ Library JCC Metro North Family Connection, Arlington, 2020. To celebrate MLK day, workshop organizers wanted to plan a one day mural project. To allow participants to individually contribute in just one workshop session, I led the group to paint and cut out individual images which I later collaged together in one composition.
Dancing Through the Seasons, Apollinaire Theater Play Lab, 2019
Playing Outside All Year Long, Melrose Education Stations After School Program, 2010.
These two different 6 week projects invited students ages 6-11 to build their skills and confidence with painting each week, as they added layers to the painting. Week 1, students voted as a group on a season to depict and together, brainstormed activities they loved to do outdoors in that season. Then, they painted the sky and the earth. Old master paintings and photos were observed and discussed for reference. Weeks 2 and 3, students practiced drawing native species of trees and plants, and animals, using field guides as references, then painted them on the canvas. Week 4, students practiced drawing children playing and doing seasonal activities or dancing, before painting them. Week 5, a few finishing details of weather, plants and people were added, along with a coat of protective glaze, and invitations were made. At the final meeting, an artists’ reception was prepared to unveil the murals to other students and parents and celebrate the students’ hard work.