TERRE HAUTE COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — When driving by the intersection of 7th and Walnut, you may notice a new piece of art thanks to Change of Terre Haute.
The mural will highlight historic African American leaders and the Black Lives Matter Movement.
“It’s very important for the community to be out here,” said Change of Terre Haute President Erick Beverly. “To have this project approved by the city. I feel like we have a lot more work to get done. You know this is nice for the community.”
Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are just some of the historic leaders that’ll be on display. Courtland Blade lead artist for the mural says a project of this magnitude takes a lot of planning.
“Planning how you’re going to execute the piece. Getting the preparatory work especially if you’re going to do it in a short amount of time like a day,” said Blade. “The under sketches creating the cartoons. Those are like long stencils to a certain extent that you use to help get the proportions and lay out pretty quickly onto the ground.”
The mural will be located between local businesses, the library and the new Terre Haute Police Station. Business owners say they hope the location will bring more people to the area.
“We were excited when we first heard about it being this because this block is a very visible block with the library being here there is a lot of foot traffic,” said Kelly Ford, co-owner J Ford’s Black Angus. “We’re going to get the police station soon and with all the other progresses going on it just helps us with more visibility.”
Indiana State University helped sponsor the mural and several art major students also took part in the painting.
“I think this is definitely a very important movement and so being able to participate outside of just the campus and more in town is great,” said Sam Morlan. “Just to bring a little bit more of that to the town itself because I know on campus we can be a little isolated so it’s like so it’s nice to actually be able to do that out in public.”
Beverly says he is very thankful to the artist Blade, the city of Terre Haute, Indiana State University and the public library for helping to make this mural possible.
