Tia Richardson of Cosmic Butterfly Design doesn’t choose what her murals are about; she asks the people she’s painting them for what they want to see. Her approach to public art is community-led from conception to creation, and the resulting colorful and inspiring scenes are all over Milwaukee.
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Her latest project is transforming a 40-by-70-foot wall of Tenor Journal Square High School near Kilbourn Avenue. She started by asking students: “How do you see yourself in your community?” They wrote about their challenges and visions for a better future. They drew them, too. “The pictures they’re using are real to them – things they experience,” Richardson says. “[The symbols] give me a place to stand on and build from.”
Three community painting sessions in April gave students, parents and faculty the chance to paint the background of the finished design in the gymnasium – one for Journal Square campus students, one for Cathedral Square campus students, and one open to the public. “Once they find their spot and pick up a brush, they tend to get really calm and relaxed,” Richardson says. “They just get to be a part of it.” Including the initial design workshops in January, she estimates over 600 people have worked on the mural.
The next stage is adding finishing touches and tidying details to complete the work. Richardson typically accomplishes this with her team of assistants and volunteers, but for this project, she’s also inviting interested students with art experience to play a part in the final product.
Richardson expects the mural to be done by the end of May and be installed in the summer. “It works just like putting wallpaper up,” she says. “We’ll be hanging it using swing stage scaffolding from the top of the building, and just working our way, day by day.”
Tenor High School is also planning to hold a mural unveiling event in the fall – a reminder for the new school year and beyond of what it’s like to come together and think, as Richardson says, “What does better actually look like?”
