Mural project in New Kensington meant to inspire community, invite participation

Organizers of Murals on a Mission were expecting as many as 100 people to turn out Saturday for the first of several events promoting the painting of six murals in New Kensington over the next few months.

Held at the Voodoo Brewing Co. on Fifth Avenue, Saturday’s event offered a chance for community members to learn how to create art with spray paint, submit ideas for the murals and get to make their own artwork, said Shane Pilster, the graffiti arts curator with Rivers of Steel Arts, a project sponsor.

Surveys were also passed out for residents to provide five to 10 words that they feel represent New Kensington to them.

The first mural that Pilster painted, featured the word “community.”

“At a very base level, it gives people who live here involvement in the physical beautification of an area,” said Chris McGinnis, director of Rivers of Steel Arts. “They’re having a voice in creative energy in town.”

The project is funded by a $10,000 grant from Pennsylvania Council of Arts — and another $10,000 in matching funds.

A variety of artists will create the murals this summer.

Saturday’s kickoff event included five artists, including three muralists, Pilster said.

They offered “hands-on crash courses” on how to use spray paint, he said. Their event was to showcase it, including colors and techniques.

“There’s some stigma to using spray paint as an art form in our region,” Pilster said. “It’s not your average tagger.”

As Pilster and McGinnis prepared for Saturday’s event, McGinnis said he knows that the murals themselves cannot change a community.

But, he said, it is a piece of a larger resurgence in New Kensington, with new businesses opening in the downtown.

“It’s part of a greater investment,” he said.