“The Power and Joy in Access to All Stories”

“The Power and Joy in Access to All Stories” community mural was designed and created in collaboration with Saint Michael’s College students, faculty, & staff as part of the 10th anniversary of the Education Department’s Common Read program.

We began the 3 week project by facilitating a visioning workshop with 20 members of the college community to conceptualize the design for the mural, which led to a series of campus-wide art making workshops where they created over 175 flowers, butterflies, bees, and hexagons. Finally we installed the mural over the course of 2 weeks—working around rain and chilly temps. The mural features an elder (Wise Woman) passing down stories that are being written down by a young woman in a book for future generations to read.

At the center of the mural, written on a small sheet of installed cloth, reads a quote by author and illustrator, Jason Chin, from his 2022 Caldecott Medal Acceptance Speech, which reads: “We must be able to see the humanity in people who are different from us, which is why we need books that reflect the whole American story, in all of its diversity, and why we must fight censorship with every tool we possess.”