Fertile Ground & Nuestras Raíces Mural Project
Helen James Elementary School
Williamsburg, MA - 2006

I served as an artist and designer to create a collaborative mural between a primarily white rural agricultural community with Fertile Ground in Williamsburg and a primarily latino urban gardening community with Nuestras Raíces in Holyoke. The project emphasized the importance of learning agriculture and food in a cross cultural exchange. Over the winter, Nuestras Raíces youth muralists led brainstorming with children and families, designing, and drawing of a mural which is now situated on the side of the Williamsburg school. I worked with hundreds of drawings and collaged everyone's ideas into the mural through the two communities designs. Youth from Youth Leadership in the Arts, Northampton, MA created the documentary "Nuestras Comunidades Juntos" covering the several month long mural process across the region. The interviews tell the story of the two communities learning and understanding of one another through this unique mural collaboration.