Hopefully by now you’ve heard about Trolley Tour, have checked your calendar, and made plans to attend (or even purchased tickets!). No? If needed, you can read all the details and new features for this year’s tour over on my blog.
What I really want to talk to you about is what you’ll experience on the Trolley Tour. Each gallery will have local or regional art on display as well as local cuisine. But, for a special one-night-only exhibition, the Murosity Project will be on display as a gallery stop on the Trolley Tour.
The Murosity Project, created by the Parkview Foundation*, is a community-based art project reflecting generosity through a mosaic of images, that, when placed together, form a mural. You can understand this a bit more if you think of the photographs that look like one image but then as you look closer, you realize it’s comprised of many smaller images that are placed together.
However, the Murosity Project isn’t just a beautiful painting, which of course it is. It is the story of generosity told by 160 regional artists as they depict 160 Everyday Stars. In our community, we have people who give of themselves selflessly every day to make our region a place worth calling home. These individuals are Everyday Stars.
The stories of our Everyday Stars told in these 160 canvases stir your soul.
- One artist paints in honor of a Parkview housekeeper who, after he clocks out of his shifts, returns to the patient floors and visits those patients who have not had visitors according to the nurses.
- Another canvas honors the founder of Erin’s House. The Angola High School artist selected Tracie Martin after receiving care from Erin’s House after her friends were killed in the accident in Alabama over spring break. Through painting this canvas, this student and one of the professional artists helping with Murosity have become trained volunteers at Erin’s House and are putting together an art therapy program for those children there.
- An Everyday Star who steadfastly cheered on his community’s athletics is celebrated for his dedication.
- Philanthropists who have given our community such gifts as the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, Headwaters Park and the restored Baker Street Train Station can be found on canvases.
- The 98-year old woman who weekly packs boxes and sends them to troops is named an Everyday Star.
I invite you to come learn about these Everyday Stars that make our community a place I am thankful to call home. The entire 8’x20′ mural comprised of 160 individual, square foot canvases will be on display in the Rolland Gallery of the Arts United Center during the Trolley Tour. I’ll be there and would love to share even more stories of Everyday Stars with you.
After the Trolley Tour exhibition, the Murosity Project will be prepared for installation in the Emergency Room waiting area of the new Parkview Regional Medical Center. Once installed, the project will be hung along with an app and touchscreen for visitors to interact with. Parkview believes that generosity heals, and the Foundation believes that by telling the story of our Everyday Star’s generosity, visitors of the hospital will be uplifted in what may be a time of worry and wait.
When I first began working on the Murosity Project, it reminded me of what this blog is all about. Telling stories of our community – opportunities to serve and be involved – so that others may be encouraged to do the same. The Murosity Project takes the idea of being contagious and pairs it with a paint brush. You can’t help but be inspired and be touched by the stories of generosity. Every time I see one of the completed canvases and hear the story behind it, I’m so grateful to live in a community that has a heart for others. That gratitude only encourages me to do more. How about you?
*Disclosure: I am the Director of Communications for the Parkview Foundations.
Contagious Community 