The Beginning

The 42nd Street Mural Project began in April of 2008 with a curious librarian intern, Angel Dew, who noticed the opportunity to beautify part of Rosedale and include youth as the catalyst. Angel approached RDA to create a community partnership in designing a program. After nearly five months of planning, meetings, and grant writing, the mural at 42nd and Mission road finally has paint on it.

Phase 1

Artist Holly Swangstu agreed to lead the first stage of the project. She conducted two design sessions with eight neighborhood children ranging in ages from 13-15. These meetings were held at the Bellrose Community Resource Center just two blocks from the mural site. The students were asked to describe aspects of their lives they would like to see reflected in the mural. Many designs were created and Holly collected them all and sketched an initial design incorporating all of the ideas into a border. This border will act as the only permanent feature of the wall. The border extends the entire length of the mural and includes a large marker that reminds passerby they are in Rosedale.

Phase 2

The second stage of the project is truly exciting and innovative. In order to capture the dynamic nature of youth, the lower portion of the mural will not only create change within the neighborhood, but will change itself. Each year the new 8 th grade class of Rosedale Middle School will be led by an artist to design murals for the rest of the wall. The design period will last throughout the Fall and Winter with the mural being painted in the Spring. The first season will be directed by artist Jose Faus.

Garden Phase

The first project at the mural site was funded through the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Join Hands Day on June 1st & 8th of 2008. A small flower garden was planted around a sign announcing the project to the community. There is currently a small committee to design a larger garden and possible rain catchments.

Reflection

This project has brought out some incredible talent among our youth. We should never forget the awesome asset we have in our Rosedale youth. Each and every day there are students doing amazing things in our community. This project needs your help! If you would like to assist the project in planning, donations, or volunteering, please contact Mikey Fletcher at (913) 677-5097 or mfletcher@rosedale.org