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Painting A Brighter Future
Mural Project

The Shiawassee Arts Council partnered with Renick Stevenson, a former drug and crisis intervention counselor and muralist for a mural project titled "Painting a Brighter Future". The resulting public mural includes images that arose from student research portraying Shiawassee County life- past, present, and future. The youth worked together to explore what is meaningful in their lives and to illustrate it. In the community mural tradition, community participation and teamwork are key factors in the development of public art. Area youth became the design team, identifying images and refining the design before transferring it to the large scale necessary to fill the side of the building. Up to additional 100 community members of all ages helped to paint on panels on the ground and when completed they were installed on the building.

The public art mural was displayed at the corner of Washington and Water Streets in downtown Owosso. Thomas Bridges, Attorney, gave permission to use the 15' x 60' side of his office building. Bruce Cook, owner of Wolverine Signs, allowed the youth to use his facility to design and paint the mural panels during the project that took place in July and August, 2003.