Paint Parties

CMI Paint Parties

The CMI paint parties were not side moments to the murals. They were the living heart of them.

As part of the 12-member muralist cohort selected for the Community Mural Institute in Morganton, North Carolina, I trained in community-engaged mural making through a process built on collaboration, mentorship, and shared labor. The paint parties made that process visible. They were work-intensive days that required preparation, coordination, adaptability, and teamwork long before the public ever arrived and long after they had gone home. Supplies had to be organized, transported, arranged, monitored, broken down, and returned. Polytab sections had to be ready for participation, and the experience itself had to feel welcoming, clear, and meaningful for everyone who came to paint.

I served on the Essential Workers, or Purple Team. Because our mural location changed at the last minute, our role shifted in a way that made the interdependence of the whole cohort even more apparent. During the first event, our team helped prepare panels for the other two murals. By the second, we were balancing prep for our own mural while continuing to support the broader effort. That experience made clear that even though each team had its own mural, the success of the paint parties depended on everyone — all three teams, our facilitators, and crew — working together.

What stays with me most is not only the labor, but the pride. One of the greatest joys of those events was showing participants where their painted section would live within the finished mural. The change in their expression was immediate and unmistakable. People lit up when they realized they were not just painting a panel, but becoming part of something lasting. Whole families participated across generations, and that matters to me deeply. Their contributions are now embedded in murals that may last for decades, creating a legacy their children and grandchildren can return to and say, “I painted that,” or “my mother painted that,” or “my grandparents helped make this.”

That is part of what made the paint parties so meaningful. They transformed mural-making from something observed into something shared. They invited the community not only to witness the work, but to leave their mark on it. In that way, the paint parties were not simply preparation for the murals. They were an essential expression of what community-engaged public art can be: collaborative, and full of human connection.

Title: Community Paint Parties
Site/City: Historic Courthouse Lawn at 102 E. Union Street, Morganton, NC
Dates:
Sunday, May 21, 2023 from 4:00–6:00 PM,
Friday, May 26, 2023 from 5:30–7:30 PM