Sioux Falls, SD – The community is invited to help paint on Saturday, July 13 and Sunday, July 14 from 10am until 4pm. All are invited. No art experience is necessary. All brushes, paint, etc. will be provided. The mural is located in Meldrum Park at the corner of East 6th and Lewis Ave.
Participants will assist the Whittier Neighborhood Mural Design Team and visiting artists Dave Loewenstein, Ashley Laird and Nate Buchholz as they begin the painting process. Beginning July 15th, a group of neighborhood students, who have pledged part of their summer, are expected to continue the process. The mural will be completed in late July. A dedication celebration is planned for Wednesday, July 31 from 6 – 8pm at Meldrum Park.
Initiated by Whittier Middle School students in teacher Lela Himmerich’s class in 2011, this community-based project is a true collaborative effort. Over the last year, the three visiting artists met with more than one hundred neighborhood residents and area student groups to do research and develop the images in the mural. In May, the completed design was unanimously approved by the Sioux Falls City Council. The project is being coordinated by the Sioux Falls Arts Council and is being supported by an “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Whittier Neighborhood Design Team describes the mural as:
Our mural welcomes people to Whittier, a working-class neighborhood that embraces its heritage, celebrates its dynamic cultural and ethnic diversity, and looks forward to addressing and overcoming challenges to a prosperous and peaceful future. Our mural recognizes this as the past and present home to Native Americans from many tribes, as well as the place where settlers have come from across the globe. Our mural sings with a chorus of many languages and radiates with the colors of many cultures. And, our mural shows the neighborhood working together to care for its natural beauty, the education of its young people, and the welfare of its most vulnerable residents. Our mural is beautiful, engaging, and is the product of many dedicated hands and minds.
Media Contact:
Lela Himmerich, Project Coordinator
605-321-9309
Website – http://siouxfallsmuralproject.blogspot.com/
