A Healthy Escape

Description of

Project

During the summer, Keir Johnston worked with the Mural Arts Program at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, collaborating with about 20 teenagers. The goal was to complete and install a mural for the elder representatives of the West Oak Lane community at 72nd and Ogontz. This mural focused on themes of health, hidden green spaces, and community memories, particularly the nostalgia for the Sycamore/London Plane trees that once lined the streets but were removed during the urban renewal movements of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The mural was painted on the side of a Weaver’s Way store, which shortly after closed and relocated.

Fabrication assistance: Kim Alsbrooks and Aliene de Souza Howell