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"Say Their Names," by Silly Genius and Nils Westergard, at 3311 W. Broad St. (Photo by Brenda Soque)
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"Together We Rise," by Alfonso Perez and Noah Scalin, behind 300 E. Broad St. (Photo by Katrina Boone)
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"A Time to Rise," created at the Richmond Night Market by Nico Cathcart and Austin "Auz" Miles (Image courtesy the artists)
"We need to talk ...”
That is the simple but powerful message Richmond muralist Hamilton Glass wants to convey to the community. He has responded to calls for racial justice with Mending Walls RVA, a public art project he hopes will foster empathy, connection and conversation.
On Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, Hamilton and a diverse group of Richmond artists kicked things off by spray-painting stencils of the message “We need to talk ...” on the plywood of boarded-up storefronts throughout the city.
Mending Walls’ initial spray-painting event was a compelling and meaningful introduction to an endeavor focused on creating a new space for dialogue. “We’re all a bit in love with the micro and macro dynamic of that phrase,” says participating artist Alfonso Perez. “It works as a phrase someone might say to a friend or partner, but it functions on a macro level in terms of important conversations around race.”
Perez, who came to Richmond from Colombia and works with Latinx youth for whom language is a barrier, sees art as a language that can encourage healing and productive dialogue. “When we speak through drawing or murals, everybody is using a foreign language,” Perez says. Art, in other words, can serve as neutral territory for deep conversation.
For the next phase of the project, Glass has partnered with the Community Foundation to fund murals by Mending Walls artists on permanent exterior walls. With support from the Community Foundation and permission from building owners throughout the city, the artists can collaborate to create impactful, thought-provoking murals aligned with the organization’s mission to foster empathy and connection.
Glass has brought together many artists who have never worked together or engaged in conversation with each other; for the most part, they have existed in parallel universes. For each wall, Glass will pair two artists with dissimilar backgrounds. “It’s about conversation and being different from the other person,” he says. “It’s about understanding what that person has experienced and trying to learn something.”
Artist Hamilton Glass surveys the words he and other artists have shared around the city. (Photo courtesy Mending Walls RVA)
In addition to the collaborative murals, plans call for events where the artists and the community can engage in dialogue about the images and the issues being addressed.
Project artists are optimistic about the collaborations and their potential impact. “I’m excited about being paired up with artists I’ve never worked with before,” says painter David Marion. “The collaboration can provide new perspectives and drive good conversations in the community.”
Fostering engagement and connection through art is Glass’ way of helping the community heal. “I look at situations and try to figure out how I can help,” he says. “I’m not giving speeches. Art is the way I do that.”
Muralist Emily Herr describes Mending Walls as “an amazing opportunity to use the skills and platforms I have to create more nuanced public awareness.” She feels she can contribute to healing through reading, learning from and amplifying Black voices. “Amplifying doesn’t just mean saying it louder; it means processing and hopefully adding to what they’re saying,” she says. “I ask myself, ‘How can I learn from this conversation and work that into a message?’ ”
That learning from conversation is what Glass hopes will come out of these collaborations. “Empathy is taken loosely as understanding,” he says. “I dug deep into empathy, and it deals with more than that. It’s about fueling connection. We need empathy on both sides.”
Marion, who became an artist to depict the positive, faith-filled imagery of the Black community he wishes he had seen when he was growing up, believes in the potential for these murals to foster connection. “The work we do resonates; people want to know more,” he says. “Anytime we can engage in conversation and open up minds, art is a catalyst for change.”
Nico Cathcart, Hasson Roberts and Silly Genius are among the artists spreading the message of Mending Walls RVA. (Photo courtesy Mending Walls RVA)
The very act of artists having hard conversations to create moving and impactful images can serve as a model for the community to come together and learn from one another.
Austin “Auz” Miles and fellow Mending Walls artist Nico Cathcart recently created artwork while working as featured artists during the Richmond Night Market. They say they found the collaboration process energizing and motivating.
Before creating the image together, Miles and Cathcart walked down Monument Avenue to see the people gathered there and share their observations and emotions. The two then created “A Time to Rise,” an image of a mother and child on a horse set against a background reminiscent of the graffiti adorning the Confederate monuments. “We wanted to capture the outcries and passion of those messages,” Miles says. Visits to Monument Avenue can reveal the ways in which the community at large is using the written word, visual imagery and performance to process and voice their responses to racial injustice. Those spaces have been reactivated for dialogue and engagement in a way the Mending Walls artists find inspiring.
Moving forward, the artists hope to further those conversations. “We’re using those tags as primer for the story of the connection and conversation that comes next,” Glass says.
He is energized by interest in Mending Walls among artists and the community. “As a Black man, I’m starting to get hope that we can have these conversations and have empathy for one another,” Glass says. “That’s something I’ve never felt in my entire life, literally.”
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