The Housing Center is collaborating with Building Bridges’ youth arts and job training program to create a permanent, public mural which celebrates diversity and recognizes the importance of equal access to housing opportunities. The mural will be installed on the western wall of 3907 Prospect Avenue, easily visible to car and pedestrian traffic. The public dedication ceremony will take place on April 29, 2014 and will be followed by a community conversation and reception with the mural artists and local fair housing advocates at the Housing Center’s annual Fair Housing Celebration at Trinity Commons.
Since 2006, Building Bridges, led by Katherine Chilcote, has completed 27 murals and worked with over 750 youth. The Housing Center is pleased to work with an experienced group who has completed so many beautiful works of art in Cleveland and around the country. Student artists are working side by side to create the mural. They participated in a fair housing and artistic visioning session provided by the Housing Center’s Director of Education, Darlene English, Senior Research Associate Mandy Mehlman, and Katherine Chilcote of Building Bridges, to inspire the mural’s design.
The Housing Center hopes that the mural will engage consumers who may not be aware of their fair housing rights—and will appeal to residents of Northeast Ohio. The Fair Housing Youth Mural is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Fundraising efforts for the completion of the work are in progress. If you would like to help support the mural project through a monetary contribution, please visit the Housing Center’s website.