NAVIGATE

THE MURALS

COMMUNITY PAINT

Collaborative Art Connecting Communities

What is Community Paint?

Creative Nomads designed Community Paint to tap into community collaboration and collective visioning.

Community members paint mural designs that they have helped to ideate sketched by our resident artists to complete an art piece filled with pride and creativity.

Most of our work is done on mural canvas to be able to preserve memories long after the theme has evolved just by rolling up the canvas or storing the framed piece.

THE HEIGHT OF ACHIEVEMENT

The Height of Achievement mural was the first Creative Nomads Community Paint mural dedicated to Dorothy I Height the namesake of the elementary school we partnered with to design and complete the project.

Creative Nomads received a grant from Arts Every Day to do the project as a collaborative community arts engagement session but also as a project for the 5th graders to learn about legacy and leave their own.

For this project, we completed a mural with parents, caregivers, and community members. Also, the youth painted individual canvases with themes that represented Dr. Height and her life.

Take a look into the process of the project HERE

THE PROCESS

Our goal was to capture parent and community engagement while still involving the students. As the adults painted the large mural, the youth completed smaller canvases that had images of objects associated with Dr. Height. Over 4 days and several hours the mural was complete.

FINISHED PIECE

With the help of parents and community members, we created a beautiful piece about an extraordinary woman.

MARQUEE MURAL PROJECT

The Marquee Mural Project has been our biggest Community Paint project to date. We applied to the Baltimore Community Foundation to facilitate and produce art for The Ambassador Theater as a beautification and place making supplement as the building began to undergo revitalization. We proposed SIX murals to be designed and painted by the community.

Not only was this a big project in the number of produced art pieces but we undertook this endeavor in the peak of COVID in November and December of 2020. To ensure that all community members were kept as safe as possible, we created protocols around every aspect of participation - from check in to painting. Providing gloves, masks, and socially distancing participants as much as possible.

We used Calvin Rodwell Elementary School and Teavolve as public spaces to complete the murals.

In May 2021 the murals were presented to the public on the marquee of The Ambassador during a ceremony.

Ancestors of Art

In our visioning session, the names of well-known artists kept coming up. This provided the inspiration to dedicate a mural to some of Baltimore’s artistic ancestors.

The PROCESS

Ancestors of Art

FINISHED PIECE

BALTIMORE BIRD LAND

The importance of sports bringing the community together was another theme in our visioning session. The inspiration of a flag waving both Baltimore teams was born.

THE PROCESS

BALTIMORE BIRD LAND

FINISHED PIECE

HEART BEAT OF THE CITY

In the visioning session, so many wonderful things that make Baltimore Baltimore were called out like crabs and seafood, the marching band culture, roller skating, and of course Club Music. These things were what was said to make the city tick. But what you might not notice until you are up close and personal with the art piece is the multitude of names of Club Music pioneers and practitioners written in the silver streaks. It was a unique way to pay homage to just some of the music makers who have placed Baltimore on the map musically.

THE PROCESS

HEART BEAT OF THE CITY

FINISHED PIECE

The Ambassador

THE PROCESS

Because we knew that the murals were destined to be placed on the marquee of The Ambassador, our team made the decision that one of the murals should be its namesake. The final look was manifested in a unique geometric design envisioned by one of the artists, Natasha Fray.

The Ambassador

FINISHED PIECE

BRIDGES OVER BALTIMORE

THE PROCESS

The Harbor is a place that many in the City have a connection to. The iconic walkways, institutions, and imagery were discussed during the visioning. There was discussion about how The Harbor was a bridge to many neighborhoods and the visuals were born from that.

BRIDGES OVER BALTIMORE

FINISHED PIECE

For the culture

During the painting process in December of 2020 many schools were shut down and or closed to nonessential activity. Because of this the Creative Nomads team came together to paint and finish the last murals, For The Culture. We were busy painting to stay on deadline and no pictures were taken of the process.

THE PROCESS

For the culture

FINISHED PIECE

THe Mumbo Connection

2021

THe Mumbo

Connection

Original mural idea/design. The final design on the canvas opted out of the chair and added the face of Taraji P. Henson.

At the end of 2019 Creative Nomads was selected to be a member of the inaugural cohort of The Kennedy Center’s Culture Caucus. The goal was to activate KC’s new space, The Reach. In 2020 COVID hit and all in-person activities and experiences were dismantled. Once we were able to begin in-person events we had to think of ways to begin back the process of feeling safe community building. We decided to activate a mural as one of our Cultural Caucus group productions.

We visioned this mural by asking other Culture Caucus members about the deep cultural symbols of DC. As the only Baltimore-based member of the Culture Caucus, we wanted to make sure the natives had the voice. Though we work and have worked for years in DC, amplifying the voice of Washingtonians was a no-brainer. We also engaged friends and advisors from DC to come up with the image. The final image was adjusted.

As a nod to Chocolate City, this was also the first mural we produced on Black canvas.

THe Mumbo Connection

THE PROCESS

This was the first mural project that we used tables as the base of the mural to paint. In other murals painting processes, we hung the canvas or had it on the ground. Both of those were not an option and using tables turned out great. We were able to use the safety protocols establised with the Marquee murals to continue to keep participants safe.

THe Mumbo Connection

IMAGE COMING SOON

FINISHED PIECE

LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY

2022

LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY

Creative Nomads launched our Where Art Starts Youth and Family program with experiences aimed at early learners. So it was great to be able to do a mural engaging parents, school team members, and community members around a mural celebrating the atmosphere at Lakewood Elementary, a school that only teaches early learners.

For this project we had two visioning sessions with parents and community members to get their thoughts on how the school makes them and their children feel and what makes the school special. We received great feedback and our artist came up with this vibrant design that captured the warm feelings and excitment that stakeholders shared.

LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY

THE PROCESS

LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY

FINISHED PIECE

Dr. Levi

Watkins, Jr.

Creative Nomads teamed up with Johns Hopkins Hospital Outpatient Center to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr.

We engaged current and past staff, patience of Dr. Watkins, and the general public in the visioning and painting sessions.

Over 100 people touched the mural adding their brush prints to this amazing design. We are excited to see the mural hung in the outpatient center that has now been named after Dr. Watkins!

Dr. Levi

Watkins, Jr.

THE

PROCESS

Dr. Levi

Watkins, Jr.

IMAGE COMING SOON

FINISHED PIECE