'RISE' Mural

"RISE" by Troy Jones, Charles Trott, Ray Arcadio, Tanvi Malushte, Bukola Adeleye, and Deb Sinha. A movable mural created at the Art House Gallery in Summer 2020. Video by Tanvi Malushte.

Art House Productions is proud to announce a mural project with local artists Ray Arcadio, Tanvi Malushte, Troy Jones, Bukola Adeleye, Deb Sinha and Charles Trott. “RISE” is a 25’ movable mural on canvas that was completed in the Art House Gallery in summer 2020.

Gallery Director Andrea McKenna wanted the empty gallery to have use since the pandemic forced a hold on public art shows. With the Black Lives Matter movement at peak awareness, it was only fitting that this would be the subject. 

McKenna says, “The gallery would be empty for a couple of months and I wanted to give artists a space to create and speak visually however they were feeling. I asked a few artists and then a few more joined. They were excited to just be able to come in and paint. I’m in awe of the work created and I think it’s a very important message with iconic motifs signifying hope and change.”

One of the muralists, Tanvi Malushte created a video to document the project. Malushte says “I don’t feel I have the words to explain my experience working on this mural. It wasn’t just the fact that this was meant to make a statement, it was more of an experience to know who we are and how much we separate ourselves from each other by giving ourselves labels. Why do we forget that we all are just humans at the end of the day? We are not born with labels; in the same manner we die with no labels.  My elephant in the mural represents humans, they don’t have any cast, color or class, they are simply just elephants.”

The mural was displayed inside City Hall as a part of their art exhibition that was featured for JC Fridays, a quarterly, citywide, free arts festival produced by Art House Productions. It was displayed there for the month of September and is now back at Art House. Where it will go next is being discussed.