COMMUNITY MURALS AS PROCESSES OF COLLABORATIVE ENGAGEMENT:
CASE STUDIES IN URBAN AND RURAL PENNSYLVANIA
Open Access
Author:
Gyekis, Elody
Area of Honors:
Elective Area of Honors - Civic and Community of Engagement
Degree:
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Helen P O'leary, Thesis Supervisor Rosa A Eberly, Thesis Supervisor Mary Lou Zimmerman Munn, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
art public community
Abstract:
This thesis uses three community mural projects—two in inner-city Harrisburg
and the Valley Roots Community Mural project in Millheim, Centre County—to analyze
the impacts of collaborative community art. Contemporary technologies and materials
that maximized collaborative community engagement were utilized in the mural-making
processes. Local residents provided the visions for the themes and guided the designs,
filled in the paint-by-number panels of the murals, helped to install the murals, and
celebrated the unveiling. Community meetings, painting sessions, and unveiling
ceremonies for these projects became opportunities for intergenerational and cross-
cultural dialogue and relationship building. I discuss responses to the projects and
analyze of community feedback in relation to an in-depth literature review of public art
projects and related topics in the arts, communication, and social sciences. My analysis of
formal and informal participant feedback and media coverage reveals three categories in
which the mural project was highly successful for those who were engaged in it: the
generation of social capital, the creation of amenities, and personal inspiration. The
completed murals are lasting public art pieces—visual tributes to a collaborative
community vision and each community's pride in the diverse physical and cultural
aspects of its location and history.
