The Community Arts Reintegration Project (CARP) will host a Community Mural Design Day at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 16. This virtual meeting will be held via Zoom. Past and present members of the New Kensington community who would like to participate in the discussion are asked to register here. Upon registering, a link to the online meeting site will be shared via email.
CARP, a program administered out of Pitt-Greensburg’s Center for Applied Research (CFAR), is partnering with Westmoreland Community Action on the mural project. Funding, in part, is provided through a grant from the University of Pittsburgh’s Year of Creativity. Additional information about the mural project may be found here.
“This Community Mural Design Day is for anyone who wants to take part in the beautification of the New Kensington community,” said Tim Holler, PhD, CARP director and assistant professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. “Community members are asked to join CARP to discuss the rich history and bright future of New Kensington and how those memories and hopes can be incorporated into the mural design. Our amazing artist, Bernie Wilke, will bring all of these memories and ideas together to form a conceptual draft of the large-scale mural.” Holler explained that this will be the first of at least two design meetings.
“While this initial design process will most likely take place entirely online, once the design is decided upon by the community, our goal is to eventually have in-person paint days that anyone can take part in, young or old, novice or expert,” he said.
In April, the New Kensington community was invited to submit ideas, photos, sketches, and suggestions for the mural. This Community Design Day will provide an opportunity to discuss these submissions and other ideas. The building formerly housing Walt’s Deli building has been designated as the location of the mural.
In addition to working with the community to generate the design of the mural, community members will be invited at a later date to help with painting the panels that will make up the mural. A key component of CARP is its restorative justice element that brings together community members, organizations, and youth currently on probation with the Westmoreland County Juvenile Probation Department to develop and construct the murals that will be installed on selected buildings in targeted cities throughout the county.
This is the second community mural to be initiated by CARP. Its first mural was designed with the assistance of community members from Mt. Pleasant and is now installed on the side of the American Architectural Salvage building at the entrance to the Coal & Coke Trail.