LYNN — A “Wall of Gratitude” that honors local heroes will be installed on the City Hall community lawn following unanimous approval from the City Council Tuesday night.
The Wall of Gratitude was painted by a team of primarily young female artists, known as the Womxn Artists Muralists (WAMX), who are based out of the local nonprofit Raw Art Works (RAW). The project features a series of portraits of Lynn residents who have been dubbed local heroes by the WAMX team.
With seven panels, the installation will feature Doneeca Thurston of the Lynn Museum/LynnArts; Cinda Danh, who is a mentor for the Asian American Women’s Political Initiative; Nicole Mcclain, who founded North Shore Juneteenth Association; Hannah Parker, who started the Black Student Union at KIPP Academy; Michelle Guzman, a community organizer for the New Lynn Coalition; Sugei Abreu, a practice manager of adolescent and pediatric medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; and current youth member in the RAW Chiefs Program Carlos Alas.
The team of artists who created the project use public art and murals to engage the community and share important stories. According to Laura Smith, an expressive arts therapist at RAW and instructor for WAMX, the new mural is part of the “City All” initiative, which aims to use art to provide more representation for the community inside City Hall.
“The mural represents different residents of the city who’ve played an important role in keeping the city moving forward throughout the pandemic,” Smith said. “It is a way to allow the people of Lynn to feel represented in government spaces.”
The “Wall of Gratitude” was created during the summer of 2020 and partially funded by The Boston Foundation and the Shout Syndicate grant programs as part of the City All initiative. Members of WAMX began working on the installation before the pandemic, but Smith said the piece took a very different direction when their virtual groups began discussing the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, and how the COVID-19 pandemic was negatively impacting so many people.
“The kids thought about who they wanted to say ‘thank you’ to at that time,” Smith said. “Yes, it was frontline workers and the people who were helping to carry Lynn forward during a hard time with the pandemic, but also, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was holding space for important conversations about race and racism.”
Smith said the group wants to install the mural as soon as possible and keep it up at City Hall until September, when the weather starts to get colder.
The City Council approved the installation with a stipulation that RAW must work with the city’s Department of Public Works and Inspectional Services Department to ensure that its implementation doesn’t interfere with any irrigation, pipes and electricity, given that the U-channel rods that will hold the panels are 36-42 inches thick. The panels themselves are 3 by 8 ½ feet.
The goal of WAMX is to use art to create positive change throughout the community.
As a youth arts organization, RAW is based around art therapy and “believes that all kids should be seen and heard, and that everyone has a story to tell,” according to its website.
In addition to the WAMX program, RAW offers a variety of free programming for kids ages eight to 19, including painting and filmmaking.
“RAW uses art to ask kids ‘what is really going on’ in their lives, giving them the tools to create in unexpected ways, and envisioning new possibilities for their future,” the nonprofit said.
