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THE Kiwanis Club of New Kingston (KCNK), in collaboration with artists from Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA), have completed and unveiled a mural on Mark Lane, downtown Kingston, which is expected to encourage education and greater community involvement of residents and visitors.
The mural, which was commissioned on June 12, was unveiled on July 10. It is the KCNK 2019-2020 administrative year's major project dubbed Re-Creating a Beautiful downtown Kingston.
The initiative was a two-part project involving the training of staff and students of EMCVPA in the art of spray painting. This was done online in March 2020 by Cedric Vice Douglas.
Part two involved spray-painting a mural on the walls of Sangster's Bookstore,at the intersection of Mark Lane and Harbour Street, depicting the Kiwanis motto, "Serving the children of the world". The mural was designed by Douglas and EMCVPA.
Greg Bailey, lecturer of the mural course at EMCVPA, said his team of artists wanted to highlight the outreach programme of Kiwanis Club and add the educational component in the descriptive properties of the mural to highlight the importance of education as well as service - core values of the Kiwanis Club
"We went about digging into our Jamaican history and we thought it fitting to introduce Marcus Garvey as well. We know the Marcus Garvey Liberty Hall is just up the road, so it's a very integral part of the Kingston narrative. Looking at philosophy and other educational aspects, we have visually represented that in several aspects, one of which is the use of books with different titles as an introduction to the many educational aspects there [are]. There is representation of Rynola Fraser who is now a NASA intern; there is the classroom setting and care-giving of Kiwanis. The DNA symbol represents serving the children of the world, which is also the Kiwanis motto. All human beings - regardless of gender, race - our DNA pattern is pretty much the same," Bailey said.
Further, Miriam Hinds Smith, dean of the School of Visual Arts at EMCVPA, added that the key points highlighted in the mural are significant to us as a people.
"Everything must be above self and above service. We feel that we have encapsulated for Garvey to even the representation of activities coming out of Kiwanis, to pin together and undergird all these components of Kiwanis Jamaica. We are about service, we are about collaborating, and we are about pulling the parts together that signif[y] who we are [and] that signifies our DNA as people of service.
Hilary Coulton, public relations and administrative manager at the CHASE Fund, lauded the beauty of the mural and said she was happy the funders have an appreciation for art and its effect on communities.
Coulton said the project was completed under the arts and culture portfolio and, though the last financial year was impacted by COVID-19, CHASE disbursed $220 million in project funding and increased the number of scholarships given to students in the year, most of whom were at EMCVPA.
She said: "We love to see the full-circle effect where students from Edna are now part of the painting of this mural. CHASE is always happy to be a partner. We thank the municipal council for the walkway and applaud the Kiwanis Club, and look forward to more partnerships."
Town Clerk Robert Hill also applauded the KCNK for its partnership and said it speaks volumes of the values and core principles of Kiwanis, which is bringing up our children the right way.