Pine Hill Mural Inspires

By Katie Whitfield


The dedication celebration of the Pinehill Community Center mural is scheduled on Friday, June 20, 12-2pm. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.


Along the side of Pine Hill Community Center, a bright and inspiring painted message is delivered on Alice Avenue. The mural is part of the recent inaugural District Mural Program, facilitated by the UrbanArt Commission for the City of Memphis Public Art Program. Titled, "This is My Song,” the artwork was brought to life by artists Chad Irwin and Kyle Taylor who explained: "The title is intended to capture the sentiments of the neighborhood surrounding the Community Center and is meant to represent what the center aspires to be." Utilizing both the pursuit of education and the struggles faced obtaining it; the artwork displays a story of life balance and determination. It offers a blend of youth and the elderly, signaling hope for the future.

The Pine Hill Community Center was chosen after a review of potential sites. After the location was confirmed, meetings were held to determine the vision for the mural. Working together with the community and the center directors the artists focused on education and "a life well-lived" were to be central focus of the mural. Rory Campbell, Director of Pine Hill, wanted to “see the community coming together as a whole.” The mural displays just that message: it depicts the cycle of ages within a seamless unity.  The central figure is a young man who peacefully holds music to his ears. Surrounded by diplomas, books and ribbons on one side, he is balanced by a newborn, a young woman and a serene elderly woman on the other side. Rory Campbell states the importance of the elderly in the community. "They help the kids stay away from gangs and other troubles." He understands how the elderly in the neighborhood can influence these children and direct them down a positive path. The community center and its directors are constantly raising awareness against violence. For example, in spring 2014, Pine Hill was visited by the Heal the Hood Foundation. The non-profit organization is designed to heal broken communities through the power of unity.

The Pine Hill mural has been well received by the community center users and its neighborhood. Campbell shared his delight at the compliments from children visiting the center, from neighbors and other onlookers. The mural is revered as a positive stamp on the community center, physically and emotionally. Its message is best summarized by Campbell's motivation for his job: "My job is about showing the youth that people care, it's about taking time to listen to what the young are saying, and to show them love. This is why the community center directors do what they do…to show the kids compassion." The Pine Hill mural shares this benevolent message.

Read more about the "This Is My Song" mural by Chad Irwin and Kyle Taylor at Pine Hill Community Center.

Playback Theatre Collects Stories for District 6 Gateway Sculpture

by Alex Clementi

As the local improv performance group Playback Memphis showed this past Thursday, there is no better way to spark ideas for artwork than by making art. Sculptor Yvonne Bobo has been commissioned to create the District 6 Gateway sculpture for Southside Park at 612 South Parkway East, one of seven new landmarks commissioned in each of the City’s seven council districts. The artist, together with Playback Memphis and the UrbanArt Commission, invited community members to share their ideas, narratives, and histories of living in the South Memphis neighborhood during a participatory performance at the St Andrew Fellowteria.

Bobo’s innovative approach to collecting feedback from the community led to the engagement of Playback Memphis. Virginia Murphy, Artistic and Managing Director, defines playback theatre as a medium that “creates space for people to experience a high level of connectivity, communication, and empathy through the act of storytelling.” Master percussionist Ekpe Abioto set the beat for the seven Playback performers. The evening’s MC was Curtis Thomas, Deputy Executive Director of The Works, a South Memphis community development corporation.

Just as a piece of public artwork depends on the intellectual and sensory participation of its viewers, the Playback Memphis theatrical performances relied on audience engagement and contributions. One member of the improve acting troupe would begin by asking a volunteer from the audience to tell a little bit about their relation to South Memphis and share their experiences living in the neighborhood. The group of seven performers then turned an individual narrative into an interactive piece of art by animating the story through intricate movements, repetitive dialogue, and music. The series of captivating performances reflected the individual narratives that spoke of the continuing strength of the neighborhood, the welcoming atmosphere, the richness in musical history, and the inescapable attraction the area has on all who pass through. The performances, in short, transformed storytelling into performance art.

Artist Yvonne Bobo (left) will be using the narratives gathered from the audience to shape her ideas about her design for the new sculpture in Southside Park. The sculptor’s concept for a large-scale, abstract sculpture consists of multiple spheres positioned on archways like a string of pearls. The spheres will be etched with highlights from the storytelling workshop.

Southside Park is currently being renovated by the Memphis Division of Park and Neighborhood Services. The basketball court, an important part of the work, will be resurfaced to feature the Grizzlies colors, blue and yellow. Yvonne Bobo’s sculpture will serve as a landmark and District 6 identifier for the public.

Read more about the workshop or view the photo album of the event on Facebook.

Greenlaw Community Center Mural Serves as Inspiration

Reported by Alex Clementi in April 2014

Almost a full year after artist Brandon Marshall completed the District 7 Mural at the Greenlaw Community Center, the artwork is continuing to amaze the public. But as Greenlaw Community Center director April Golden mentioned in a recent interview, the mural is serving as much more than that: It is an inspiration to the community. As April explained, “we’re in the middle of an area that is basically being renovated. You have the old side and the new side…and we’re smack dab in the middle.” The mural, as she explained, inspires a sense of identity in the neighborhood. “It shows a positive side in what we’re trying to do for our community…and the neighborhood absolutely adores the mural,” notes April. She also emphasized the mural’s impact on the children in the neighborhood. “They comment the most, they love the mural,” says April, “They try and figure out if it is one of them up there.” In noting the positive effect and responses to the new mural, April Golden is keen to see more public art in the neighborhood.

Read more about the background, figures and symbols shown in the mural in the UrbanArt Commission's online Gallery.

Memphis Parkway Emblems: Markers of Our Past and Present – Frank Morris installs new urban art

Frank Morris tests a mock-up of one of 10 Parkway Emblems. Markers are being installed on E, N and S Parkways.

Article by Isabelle Campbell

The city of Memphis has changed much since the year 1900, but one element has remained constant – the Parkways, the markers of the original city limits. From the hands and mind of artist Frank Morris, North, South, and East Parkways will soon receive ten distinctive emblems at their major intersections. Each emblem will stand ten feet tall and will be constructed of steel, iron, and brushed aluminum. Just as these emblems will reflect a quality of distinction from their parkway locations, they will also symbolically reflect the past and present of Memphis. While one great aim of this project is to improve the aesthetics of Memphis’s oldest streets without abandoning the history that these roadways have seen, the other is to form a meaningful connection to the people of the present day.

“I love the way you can ambush people with art,” Morris says, “They can’t stop it – they can’t un-see it.” The Parkway Emblems Project pays homage to the rich cultural history of Memphis through examination of what that history means in a contemporary context. “Vision is so important in the formative stages of art,” Morris remarks, noting that a “strong concept” must be developed which gives correct degrees of attention to the themes and background of a piece. Half the fun, Morris shares, is the adventure of developing the style and format of a new piece and the challenge of tackling diverse types of projects. As this project is the artist’s first public art commission, he learned that process takes a standard 3-5 year timeframe from beginning to end, comparable in process and review mechanism to architecture and the construction industry. Morris says that he has been having a fun adventure with the project, which is being facilitated by the UrbanArt Commission for the City of Memphis Public Art Program.

For Morris himself, the Parkway Emblems are a culmination of his many practiced talents. His scope as an artist has extended throughout a variety of mediums and commissions, including private portraits, portraits of past U.S. presidents, and a series of commemorative coins (including five currently in productions and several more that are pending) for the U.S. Mint. Morris has also lent his talents to up-and-coming artists, as a teacher at the School of Visual Design in New York City, at the Memphis College of Art, and at his own home studio. A born Memphian, Frank Morris estimates that about ninety percent of his works is done for locations beyond Memphis. As a local, Morris feels deeply connected to the people and culture of Memphis that his Parkway Emblems commission will represent. The combination of both his global and local perspectives make the artist’s role as creator of Memphis’s iconic new markers all the more significant to the representation of the culturally burgeoning city.

Morris tips his hat to the UrbanArt Commission’s mission of promoting unlimited thinking to all people, many of whom are unaware of the effect art is having on them at a subconscious level. “Even if people do not realize it, art instills a sense of hope,” Morris shares. With the Parkway Emblems, he hopes to impact people on both conscious and subconscious levels, and especially those who have less regular access to art in their communities. Morris hopes that others will find personal connections in the Parkway Emblems, just as he has found and integrated elements of himself into their creation. “I do art and I am a dad,” the artist shares. The concentration of the Parkway Emblems project in the Memphis area has allowed Morris, a single father, to involve his daughter in the artistic process. In short, the Parkway Emblems have come to symbolize so many elements of the artist’s life. For Frank Morris, his personal history and his present identity as an artist and father have intersected to embody a greater sense of meaning within this public art commission. The introduction of these emblems to the Memphis community at key Parkway nodes presents a similar opportunity to others driving along the Memphis Parkways, to discover bits of their own history and even subconscious present.