Artists capture the power of community in Boston murals

The artists behind Boston’s murals create their pieces of public art with precise brush strokes and an even more intentional creative process, crafting not only masterful visuals, but beacons of community. In the summer of 2016, The Boston Project Ministries led a mural tour around the city as a part of their teenage job employment program. In front of the “Welcome To Jackson Square” mural, painted on a concrete wall and located right between Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, the tour group stopped for a moment. Then, a shirtless man biked by. He paused his ride, walking over to ask them what they thought of the vibrant 60-foot- long painting that stood in front of them, bearing the words, “We Are Family.” He introduced himself as Alex Cook, the artist who had painted it. A staff member took down his information and now, nine years later, 10 murals have been created through their partnership to serve the greater Dorchester community. There are over 100 murals in Boston, some funded by the city and others initiated by artists and community organizations. For the artists behind these murals, and for Karin Goodfellow, Boston’s director of transformative arts and monuments, the murals are more than an aesthetic addition; they are a catalyst for community connection. According to both the American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization, engagement with art can reduce symptoms of anxiety, help people navigate emotionally difficult experiences, enhance social cohesion, and connect individuals with their heritage. The work of Boston muralists embodies these benefits, creating a network of towering art pieces aimed at making Bostonians feel at home and recognized. The first mural Cook created in collaboration with The Boston Project Ministries was titled, “You Are Loved” in Elmhurst Park, located near the nonprofit’s building. “The ‘You Are Loved’ mural was very compelling to us,” said Paul Malkemes, the executive director of The Boston Project Ministries. “I think it ties in with our sense of faith-God’s posture towards people-but also that he did the murals in the ideal scenario where communities were engaged.” Malkemes added that including the community in the mural-making process has always been, and continues to be, a trademark practice. Before the painting begins, the community signs off on the design together, Malkemes said, adding that the typical mural-making process takes about five days. The process starts with Cook sketching out the design, followed by painting with the help of youth and neighbors, and ends with Cook adding the final touches. The “You Are Loved” mural movement began in 2014 after Cook developed the idea to create multiple murals following the painting of the original mural on a wall of Woodland West Elementary School in Harvey, La . the previous year. He created the mural in an attempt to infuse the school with self-worth, using phrases such as “You Are Loved” to counteract the influence of society that he says makes children feel unimportant. There are now 120 “You Are Loved” murals across the U. S. and abroad. Two other murals created through the partnership of Cook and The Boston Project Ministries include direct visual responses to events that have impacted the community. The “Peace and Justice” mural on Norfolk Street, painted in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, includes the names of local victims of gun violence. The team working on the mural reached out to neighbors, asking if they could honor their children by including their names in the design. A mother of a child whose name was included came to see the mural while the team was there. “She said to us that it was the first time since she had lost her son that someone’s ever recognized him,” Malkemes said. This response is what mural artists like Cook want to stimulate. “When I got positive community support, I really fell in love with that relationship,” Cook said. “There’s a wall that says you are loved. In all the other swirling facts of your life, that’s one of the facts that you can’t do anything about.” Another mural Cook applied this philosophy to is the “Love Your Neighbor” mural painted in 2018, also on Norfolk Street. The mural, according to Cook, was an artistic reply to a shooting that had taken place in the area. “The shooting was an expression of broken relationships, bad feelings, a really cold and awful sense that’s so dark, and we’re trying to counter that,” he said. Cook’s “You Are Loved” series also extends to the City of Boston’s Engagement Center. Goodfellow described the process behind the murals that are now a part of the center, stating that there was a major consideration of what audience the murals would be serving and what would be meaningful for them. Both Cook and Mz. Icar, an anonymous art collective which also worked on the Engagement Center murals, were chosen specifically for their approaches to making art, Goodfellow said. This approach involves prioritizing the individuals who will see and be impacted by the murals, falling in line with the City of Boston’s objective to create inclusive public artworks. “A Canvas of Culture,” an ongoing project of the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, embraces this approach, focusing on bringing art that communities want to various Boston public schools. “What we’re really interested in is providing art throughout our neighborhoods to as many people as we can, and having art that brings them joy and makes them feel seen and celebrated on the streets and walls of their neighborhood,” Goodfellow said. Currently, there are seven mural artworks completed under the project, one titled “Heroes,” painted by Sophy Tuttle. In talking about her artistic origin, Tuttle recalled moving many times before coming to the U. S. from England when she was little, having to sever ties with friends and becoming a loner. Despite this, she said that there was one thing she never had to part with: the natural world around her. Wherever she was, she would find a field or a patch of green to find sanctuary in-an experience she seeks to share with others through her art. After going to art school and completing an artist residency in Mexico, she has created murals across the world, focusing on bringing vignettes of natural tranquility to those in urban spaces. “I want people who live in urban environments to be able to stop and just have a little five-second snippet of nature. And maybe it’s good for them, but it definitely, at least, breaks you out of your routine,” she said. For her mural, “Heroes,” painted on the playground wall of Hugh Roe O’Donnell Elementary School, Tuttle gathered drawings of plants and animals from students to include in the design. “As I was painting it, kids would come up to me and say ‘I drew that bird,’ and I would say I know, that’s why I put it in there,” she said. Tuttle added that a lot of the students at the school are from Spanish-speaking countries. In Boston, they are introduced to a community that is constantly changing, making the presence of familiar flora and fauna comforting. This desire to be in a setting surrounded with pieces of their native environment comes through in the drawings the students created. Many students drew hibiscus flowers or “quetzals,” a bird with a neon green body and red belly whose habitat is in Central and South America. When asked about how she thought her mural might impact the community she painted it in, Tuttle wasn’t sure if they would remember it, but still acknowledged what it represented. “I hope the ones that do [remember] feel like they came to this country and someone paid attention to them, someone cared about what they had to think, and had to say,” she said. In a similar sentiment, Don Rimx, an artist born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, finds intense emotional fulfillment in being a part of the community he serves. The murals, “Garden of Beginnings” and “Roots of Empowerment,” he created as a part of the “A Canvas of Culture” project for the Lee Academy Pilot School in Dorchester, were intended to have the students who went to the school feel like a piece of them was in them. He wanted those who are a part of the school community to be able to explain the mural themselves, stating that a mural’s energetic impact lasts longer when a feeling of interconnectedness is accomplished. Rimx sees every neighborhood as its own unique community, each requiring purposeful attention to detail in order to be correctly and responsibly encapsulated in a mural’s design. This attention to detail demands research, conversations, and identifying what visuals people can connect with. For “Garden of Beginnings” and “Roots of Empowerment,” Rimx spoke with the students, their parents, and others who had connections with the school. Rimx brought Home Depot paint samples to the school, building his palette off of the student’s favorites and then creating a design based on the school’s characteristics. “I included the garden they have in the school, the mascot, and the action of seeding or planting something.[the students] are the seeds, you know, they grow up and give life,” he said. Through Rimx’s point of view, giving himself over to his art fully is what makes it click; it’s what makes his murals more than just paint on a wall. “Beauty is the hook,” he said. “But when you are present and you give your energy to the people and you talk to them and become a part of the community, that’s when it really works.” He added that this communication and wholeness is what creates change. “People start acting differently. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Sometimes it’s like, damn, I didn’t know that something I painted could be so emotional.”.
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