The 'mural' of the story is cooperation
A rare confluence of creativity, collaboration and civics has yielded the Trenton Mural Arts Project and a big plan.
The volunteer group recently announced its first project: transforming the bare brick walls now scripted with the fading letters of the Home Rubber Co. into a vibrant burst of color and form.
The subject of the mural that will adorn the buildings by the tracks of the Cass Street train station has yet to be decided. Late this month or in early January, the group will sort that out as it meets with community members to get their ideas for the mural's content.
What is decided, however, is the group's intention to bring to Trenton the kinds of eye-catching, evocative murals that enliven Philadelphia. Not only did the group model itself on the nationally recognized Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, TMAP has tapped its creative force.
Jane Golden, founder of the Philadelphia program, will oversee the design and production of the Trenton mural through "The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia and Trenton," a course at Princeton Atelier, a center at Princeton University that brings professional artists to the campus to work with students and faculty.
Golden and her team will be the primary mural artists, and there will be community involvement in the painting. TMAP anticipates the mural will be finished in May.
Whatever its subject, it will be in keeping with the building's historic significance and purpose. The TMAP has been working with the Trenton Historical Society to ensure that the mural's site and content preserve and reflect the community's industrial and manufacturing history.
As it partners with ArtWorks Trenton, the Trenton Downtown Association, the City of Trenton and Princeton University, TMAP is prepping not only for the actual painting, but its more abstract goals.
They include catalyzing community empowerment, neighborhood beautification and civic pride; fostering youth development through art education and mentorship with professional artists; and supporting artists as they share their talents with students and communities in Trenton.
Those kinds of objectives have blossomed beautifully in Philadelphia, where more than 30,000 murals have become enduring tourist attractions as well as celebrations of community pride and expression.
There are a few murals already unscrolled around Trenton -- Charles Ward's Depression-era mural "Progress of Industry" is a fixture at the federal courthouse; Mahatma Gandhi waits patiently in an alley off Montgomery Street with his advice to be the change you wish to see; and the place on South Warren Street where the Declaration of Independence was read in 1776 is marked with a painting of that historic moment.
We look forward to the Trenton Mural Arts Project adding to that collection.
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