Student Artists, Community Muralist Needed for Carrboro BLM Mural

After months of back and forth deliberation, the plan of action regarding Carrboro’s multiple Black Lives Matter murals has changed again.

Back in June, the Carrboro Town Council began its mission to paint Carrboro’s very own Black Lives Matter mural. After some back and forth deliberations, at a meeting in late August, the council moved to paint a mural reading “End Racism Now” on the parking lot between Town Hall and Town Commons.

After another standstill, at the start of October the council decided the mural in the Town Hall parking lot will now read “Carrboro Facing Race Embracing Equity.” Now, as we near the end of the month, Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle said the Town Hall mural will be on hold while other mural projects take precedence.

“The Black Lives Matter mural once again has kind of a new shape to it,” Lavelle said. “The previous week we had approved a Mural for the CommunityWorx building and for Carrboro Town Hall, but this past Tuesday we kind of had a reconsideration of that motion – still moving forward with CommunityWorx’s community mural and I believe also Town Hall – but have decided that we want to do something at the Century Center.”

Because of the Century Center’s height, Lavelle said this project wouldn’t be a community art event for safety reasons – although, in turn, this location would allow for greater visibility of the Black Lives Matter message.

“That’s really one of our most visible buildings in town – right at the centerpiece of town – and to have it there would really make a nice statement,” Lavelle said. “So we revisited that a little bit and we’ll get an update about that from staff probably the week after next – kind of talking about the budget allocation to be able to get that done.”

While the Town Hall and Century Center mural are being workshopped, Carrboro’s CommunityWorx project is moving forward. CommunityWorx in Downtown Carrboro has offered the east side of its thrift shop and office building as a location for a community mural.

The town is currently looking for both student artists and a coordinating muralist to complete this project. According to the town, preference for student artists will be given to students that reside in Carrboro and those who are members of the Youth Advisory Board, Carrboro Youth Council or NAACP Youth Organization.

The coordinating muralist will review mural entries submitted by the student artists and, along with the Carrboro Arts Committee, provide input and recommendations on the top two entries. Once the mural is selected by the Town Council, the work will commence.

The CommunityWorx project has been allocated $500 dollars in compensation for student artists and $1,500 dollars for the coordinating muralist. In addition to this compensation, $2,000 dollars of funding has been set aside for supplies and equipment.

The deadline to apply to be one of the student artists, or the coordinating muralist, for the CommunityWorx Black Lives Matter mural is November 8. Find the link to apply here.

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Student Artists, Community Muralist Needed for Carrboro BLM Mural

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