New Hillside Community murals look to inspire youth in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., (KRDO) - Two new murals are coming to life at El Pomar Youth Bike Park.
Through each mural, the Colorado College Community Mobile Arts Program aims to tell impactful community stories.
A story of Colorado Springs leaders who have shaped the city's history. The Co-director of the CC Mobile Arts Program, Naomi Wood, feels its mission is to inspire.
"Often times our curriculum is so limited and we are told what to teach sometimes or our books dictate what we get to teach and it only tells five percent of the story and there is so much that left out," said Wood.
On one of the murals on the bike storage containers is the face of the legendary baseball player, Sam Dunlap.
The artist of this mural, Armando Silva, feels inspired by the legend himself.
"So you can take a story like sam somebody who broke a lot of barriers, but not only broke barriers, but also became a champion, by not only being the first to do something, but to do something and be great at it."
The Colorado Springs native was a player for the city's first all-Black semi-professional baseball team, the Brown Bombers.
Dunlap fought for racial equality on the diamond and in this community, he represents a fighter for equality for many.
"It helps us to see that we have a very diverse community sometimes it is still segregated in ways like we are still fighting from the finding of the city itself when we were encouraged not to talk to each other so that is one of the goals of the program," added Wood.
And the other mural is a representation inspired by the current youth.
"On this side, we wanted to represent something for youthful, our aspects of what we think about giving and reaching out," said community mural artist Kai Gaynor.
The kids participating in this project hope to finish the project by Saturday.
The CC Mobile Arts Program will be hosting another community event on Saturday at the El Pomar Youth Bike Park an event dedicated to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, for more on the event click here.
