The Jewish Community Center (“The J”) announces the public launch of a community art installation entitled “The Wall of Respect,” with a public painting event at Union Station on Monday April 30 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The event, for individuals and families, is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is requested at 913-327-8077. Participants, who must be at least 9 years of age, are instructed to wear painting clothes.
The art installation was inspired by a mural created in 1967 by a group of Chicago artists, which gave birth to a national community mural movement.
Building upon the spirit of the work in Chicago, the local project (“The Wall) celebrates Native American, Asian American, Jewish, African American and Latino/Hispanic communities. Unlike the original painting, it is portable, designed to travel to audiences throughout the metro area; organically evolving, inviting audiences to manipulate and add elements; and a portal for deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.
Most significantly, The Wall is not a mural at all. It’s a yurt, a wood and canvas tent that’s 12 feet in diameter. The outside is mural in the round, and the inside is a space where viewers are invited to rearrange elements, leave notes and place personal works of art.
The Wall has been in development since 2016, says Project Director Jill Maidhof. “Our first steps were to raise financial support and secure community endorsements. We’ve met our fundraising goal and to date, more than 12 arts and social service organizations are community partners.
Maidhof then built a team to execute the work. InterUrban ArtHouse, located in Overland Park, was hired to oversee the artwork, and the yurt was a design decision made by a team of artists under the direction of IUAH Founder and Artistic Director Nicole Emanuel. Each artist belongs to one of the featured communities. Informed by personal histories as well as narratives collected from other members of those communities, the group meshed symbols and features of their cultures in laying out the mural on the outside of the yurt.
After two years of research and development, Maidhof and Emanuel invite the public to share ownership in The Wall. The event at Union Station is the first of four Open Paint sessions to be held in different locations of the metro area. Each will include a brief orientation to the project, painting the outside and creating items for the inside of the yurt, and a celebration including a group selfie a chat about the neighborhood and snacks from a neighborhood vendor. No artistic talent is required as artists will be present to assist participants.
The project is about more than fostering an appreciation for other cultures, says Maidhof. “We’re interested in exposing people to neighborhoods they never visit. By sharing a bit about the area and providing snacks from a neighborhood establishment, we seek to entice people to enjoy more of Kansas City, to spread ideas and patronize new vendors.”
Painting will be completed by volunteers this summer. The Wall will open for display and interaction at the Jewish Community Center from Aug. 7– 17 and at the InterUrban ArtHouse in late August and September.
After these opening events, Maidhof is eager for The Wall to be experienced by as many people as possible. It will be offered first to community partners and then be available to educational, religious, civic and corporate venues throughout the metro area. The display will be free with one requirement: Each host site must offer at least one educational program in conjunction with the display. An education team is creating presentation guides addressing, at the primary, elementary and middle school-adult levels, the commonalities of the five communities as well as their unique features.
The Wall of Respect is endorsed by Jewish Voices United and is made possible by funding from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, ArtsKC, Liberty Arts Commission, Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, Dora and Louis Fox Charitable Trust, Sherry Hyatt Kaplan Fund for Adult Jewish Learning, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information about this and other “Tangled Roots” events celebrating cultural diversity through the arts, see http://www.interurbanarthouse.org/