Artistic efforts culminate in ‘City of Peace’ mural

Bright colors and familiar Bloomington icons adorn the wall outside the Bloomington Board of Realtors building at Fourth and Madison streets, the result of several months of planning, preparation and painting.

A celebration of diversity and art honored the new “City of Peace” mural Friday evening.

BloomingPeace Partners, along with volunteer local artists, and building owner Jason Beard made the mural’s installation possible.

“The location of the mural is significant because of its location near the B-Line Trail and the Arts District on Fourth Street,” said Lisa Morrison, BloomingPeace Partners and City of Peace Project public relations and marketing consultant.

Community members gathered in the parking lot in front of the mural for a dedication ceremony to celebrate the mural’s completion and the diversity it represents.

The Second Baptist Church Choir, BloomingPeace Choir and Baraka all performed at the ceremony, and Rev. Tom Capshew read passages relating to each of the 12 belief symbols featured in the mural.

Participants also formed a large circle and sang a Russian song about peace on Earth.

The mural is centered on various structures that represent Bloomington, such as classic west-side houses, the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and the Sample Gates. All the mural’s aspects were chosen with care, including a large 3-D dove at the top of the mural, flying over the city.

“Everything is sort of symbolic,” local artist Joanne Shank said. “If you look into it and want to read something into it, you can.”

Judy Noyes-Farnsworth is the other artist who helped paint the mural. The artists selected a drawing by Ayana Harlow from the Boys and Girls Club to add a child’s touch to the painting.

The project started in mid-April and, despite rainy days, it took until last week to finish, Shank said.

“I came up with the basic design so enjoyed looking up the symbols on the Internet and making sure I had them correct — how to get them to flow artistically and also be considerate to inclusiveness,” Shank said. “It was a labor of love.”

This mural’s overall purpose is to give the community the opportunity to imagine what a city of peace would look like, organizers said.

The mural acts as a first step toward achieving the organization’s long-term dream of Bloomington joining other cities around the country in obtaining the title of “City of Peace,” BloomingPeace Partners co-founder Gail Merrill said.

“It’s — our dream is that we’ll get to a point where we develop the skills for all of us to be peacemakers and to live in peace,” Merrill said. “It’s not a peace like the hippies were about — it’s really a much more deep kind of peace.”

To Morrison, the mural also acts to represent the Bloomington of today.

“It’s a beautiful mural, and I think it captures the essence of the Bloomington community in a variety of ways,” she said. “For anyone who is not familiar with Bloomington or familiar with the project itself, I think they can stand in front of the mural and get a really good snapshot, if you will, of a slice of Bloomington.”