Recognizing Our Roots and Growth For Our Future

Leeds Center for the Arts’ mission is to “energize and educate the community through the beauty and the emotional power of the arts.” Their Youth Advisory Board’s latest project is a shining example of this.

“The kids landed on a mural pretty quickly,” shares Tracey Miller, board president at Leeds Center for the Arts. They wanted the mural to be about our roots, but also growth in the community with the flowers representing individuals, differences and diversity. All this grows from the roots and the history of where we have come from.”

The Youth Board used a What’s Your Ambition?! grant from The Greater Clark Foundation to develop the mural and support the June 4 community event at Legacy Grove Park. Nearly 300 community members came together to paint the 115-foot-long mural and enjoy activities with community partners, including the Clark County Public Library, Clark County Animal Shelter, Winchester Black History and Heritage Committee and Winchester Inspired by Nature.

“We had 267 people pre-register to paint the mural,” Miller says. “We started at 10 a.m. and had almost run out of places for individuals to paint by 1 p.m. It was incredible to see young and old, people with babies and dogs, all out to participate.”

Youth Board member, David Lin, shared his experience of working collaboratively during the event.

“I was working on painting the roots section of the mural with this person next to me,” Lin recounts, “and we kind of had this wordless, and then sometimes with words, communication, about how to get this section done. We ended up getting a large section finished in about 30 minutes. I'm sure a lot of people there had a similar experience of working with different people right next to them. It's just a very good way to feel included.”

Youth Leadership: From Concept to Completion

The Youth Board met with a number of local organizations to learn about the area's history. They learned about the area’s Little League founders and successful, prominent Black business communities from the Black History and Heritage Committee. A historian shared about the local indigenous tribes, including a Shawnee village that was located in what is now Winchester.

Youth worked with renowned muralist Wylie Caudill to develop the roots and flowers design, which includes specific references to what they learned throughout the project.

Miller and the team at Leeds used their networks to connect with Caudill and to reach out to Legacy Grove Park about painting the mural on a prominent retaining wall there.

“The mural is gorgeous! We feel fortunate to have been selected as the site for the Leeds Youth Board mural,” says Deborah Jackson, executive director at Legacy Greenscapes, which manages Legacy Grove Park. “We were impressed with their inclusion of community groups that have roots in Winchester and their commitment to gathering a diverse representation of community members to be seated at the planning table.”

“The result is inspiring! It brings more life and color to a park that is already bustling with activity and engagement,” Jackson adds. “Our community needed a moment to gather together to recognize all that we have been through and celebrate all that is to come—and the community Paint Our Legacy event really highlighted that hope and happiness.

For Lin, working with the Legacy Grove Park board was a highlight of the process for him.

“The discussions with the board were really nice,” Lin says. “I'm thinking about what we wanted for the community event and what we wanted for the mural, and seeing that come together on the day was great. It felt like it really, really paid off.”

A Joyous Day and a Lasting Legacy

The Youth Board intentionally wanted to engage the community, from the paint-by-number approach to work on the mural to all the other activities—bubble station, face painting, summer reading sign-up, seedballs—shared by other community partners. The day exceeded expectations.

“It was such a joyous day, which we hoped for but didn’t expect the amount of love and fellowship we received,” Miller shares. “It’s a small community, and art and events like this remind us of how interconnected we are. It’s awesome that the kids get to see something they’ve worked so hard toward be realized in such a gratifying way.”