A campus joins community to repair a mural, renew a vision

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East joined others from the Richmond community to erase the racist vandalism.

The original mural had been painted by participants in the Just Us Kids Outdoors, a program of the Richmond Department of Parks and Recreation. Pamela Bliss, who is a senior administrative secretary in the Office of Student Life and Diversity at IUPUI and an IU East fine arts instructor, designed and directed the painting of the mural this past summer. She returned to help restore the artwork.

With paint brushes in hands, people of all ages, backgrounds, colors and ethnicities repaired the mural—and their spirits as well.

The day concluded with encouraging words of hope from volunteer painter and IU East political scientist Paul Kriese.

“As some people try to keep us apart, other people look to a future where color and class are not as important as the recognition that we must all live together as sisters and brothers,” Kriese said. “Today, under a Richmond, Indiana bridge, I saw a better future. And I had to smile.”

The IU East Multicultural Affairs Association has now adopted the mural and will be monitoring its condition.

1. IU East student Kyle Mattingly

2. Michael Frazier-Christie was one of the Just Us Kids Outdoors participants who painted the original mural.

3. Just Us Kids participant Iesha Frazier-Christie (foreground, painting), Richmond resident Vagus Ferguson (standing) and IU East political scientist Paul Kriese (painting in background) joined others in the community to complete the project.

4. A work in progress.