Students at the BLOC Arts building in Lower Price Hill are learning about art and how it can work to bring their community together.
Workshops teaching design and drawing skills, along with conversations about design ideas for a series of murals to be placed around their community, took place over the summer and fall and will continue next spring. The first and second in the urban mural series focused on portraying Lower Price Hill as a welcoming place that has love/peace and unity as a founding value. BLOC Ministries’s Mural Project in Lower Price Hill is supported in part by the generosity of ArtsWave through its Catalyzing Impact grants in 2017.
In coming months, students will explore further art skills and again join with other community members to help prep and paint the 3rd and 4th murals. BLOC Ministries plans a large reveal party for the completed murals in spring 2018 and will invite arts students, community volunteers, neighbors, parents and the greater community to celebrate the positive things happening in Lower Price Hill.
The mural series, totaling 8 around the area when complete, will also include a feature highlighting the lives of diverse community members’ victories and struggles to emphasize ‘We Are Cincinnati’. These interviews will be linked on a website and through social media. The goal is to get people out of their comfort zones and into accepting that we are all unique and unify together in understanding. For more info on BLOC Ministries’ work in Lower Price Hill and Cincinnati’s west side, visit www.onebloc.org.