FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS: Deisha Millar, Bang! Arts Media
Deisha@bangarts.com
404-663-3833
January 9, 2018 – Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta artist, Charmaine Minniefield has been commissioned by DoSomething.org, Hands On Atlanta and Spelman College to create a mural on the newly opened Westside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine. The mural construction is part of Spelman’s 2018 MLK Day of Service activities. This sprawling painting will include the likeness of Adrienne McNeil Herndon, celebrating women in leadership, the arts, education and entrepreneurship. The launch event will take place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day , Monday, January 15, 9 a.m. – Noon at the mural site on the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail, at 1320 White Street, Atlanta, GA 30310.
DoSomething.org is a global non-profit organization with the goal of motivating young people to make positive change both online and offline through campaigns that make an impact. DoSomething.org has over 5.6 million young members in every United States area code and in 131 countries.
The mural will expand upon DoSomething.org’s national campaign, “Missing in History.” The campaign activated young people nationwide to fight misrepresentation and erasure by literally inserting inclusive and intersectional histories into their textbooks in the form of handmade bookmarks depicting historical facts and individuals that are not traditionally represented. Minniefield’s finalized design drew inspiration from the campaign, and will include quotes from DoSomething.org’s members from the Atlanta area and beyond.
Minniefield, a lecturer in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Spelman, will engage the College’s alumnae and current students in the execution of the mural as one of several MLK Day of Service projects coordinated by the Bonner Office of Civic Engagement at Spelman. This public art project will both extend the College’s volunteerism into the surrounding community and draw a connection between the Spelman and the neighboring new Westside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine.
This is a special public art collaboration between Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., and Spelman. The wall stands at the unpaved trail, off the paved mainline Westside Trail, across White Street from Gordon White Park.
Previous murals by Minniefield include “Watch Me Learn,” a wall designed in collaboration with civil rights icon Dr. Doris Derby on Edgewood Avenue in the King Historic District. In this case, Minniefield used public art to push back against erasure as a contemporary social justice issue by celebrating the civil rights history of this vastly changing area.
Culture Centers International serves as the fiscal sponsor for the new mural project. Its mission is to collect the history of African-American businesses, to educate the community through the arts, and to sustain the legacy of the African Diaspora through historic preservation.
About Charmaine Minniefield
Visual artist Charmaine Minniefield seeks to preserve Black narratives as a radical act of social justice. As an artist-activist, her work intentionally pushes back against erasure, displacement, misrepresentation and marginalization by reclaiming cultural histories in communities affected by gentrification. Her murals can be seen at numerous locations in Atlanta. Her recent public art projects include projection mapping and site-specific installation. With over 20 years experience as a producer and arts administrator, Minniefield has worked with such organizations as the National Black Arts Festival, the High Museum of Art and the Fulton County Department of Art and Culture. She has produced projects with such organizations as Alternate ROOTS, Points of Light and Flux Projects and she currently serves as faculty for both Spelman College and Freedom University. To learn more about her work, visit www.CharmaineMinniefield.com
About DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org is the largest tech company exclusively for young people and social change. We’re activating 5.5 million young people (and counting!) to do good in every United States area code and in 131 countries. Using our digital platform, members join DoSomething’s volunteer and civic action campaigns to make offline impact at scale. Our members have clothed half of America’s homeless youth. They’ve cleaned up 3.7 million cigarette butts. They’ve run the world’s largest youth-led sports equipment drive. And more! Young people have the power and the passion to transform their communities — we help them get it done. Let’s Do This.
About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a highly selective, liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman; Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer, Broadway producer Alia Jones, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna President Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard professor Evelynn Hammonds, author Pearl Cleage; and actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu.
About Adrienne McNeil Herndon and the Herndon Home
Adrienne Herndon was the first woman of color faculty hired by Atlanta University. Her educational legacy of creating the oldest drama program in the country at the university in 1895, and creating her own stage and legacy at the now Herndon Home Mansion Museum, a national landmark built in 1910, are evidence of her dreams of becoming an actress, deferred by the systems of racism, re-imagined. Herndon made Atlanta a regional center for the dramatic arts long before the Woodruff Arts Center. To learn more, visit the Alonzo F. And Norris. B Herndon Foundation website at www.herndonhome.org.
About the Atlanta BeltLine:
The Atlanta BeltLine is the most ambitious transportation and economic development effort ever undertaken in the City of Atlanta and among the largest, most wide-ranging urban redevelopment programs in the United States. It is a catalytic redevelopment project that will provide a network of public parks, multi-use trails, jobs and transit along a former 22-mile railroad corridor circling downtown and connecting many neighborhoods directly to each other. The implementation of the BeltLine will be driven by equity, affordability, inclusiveness and sustainability – honoring and protecting the unique history of the neighborhoods that it connects. Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI), is the entity tasked with planning and executing the implementation of the BeltLine in partnership with other public and private organizations, including City of Atlanta departments. For more information on the BeltLine, please visit www.BeltLine.org.
About Hands On Atlanta
Since 1989, Hands On Atlanta has been the city’s volunteer hub, connecting changemakers to nonprofits and schools in need. From cleaning parks and feeding the homeless, to tutoring students and engaging the corporate community in service, our volunteers are at work every day building a more vibrant city. We believe that everyone has the power to do something good. To learn more or to sign up to volunteer, visit www.HandsOnAtlanta.org
DATES OF NOTE:
- OPENING EVENT – Monday, January 15,2018 – 9 a.m. – Noon – MURAL SITE, 1320 White Street, Atlanta, GA 30310.
- OPEN WORK DAYS – Tuesdays – Saturdays, January 13-31, 2018 – Noon – 4 p.m. – MURAL SITE, 1320 White Street, Atlanta, GA 30310.
- COMMUNITY UNVEILING EVENT – Saturday, February 3, 2018 – 2 – 5 p.m. – MURAL SITE, 1320 White Street, Atlanta, GA 30310.
MEDIA:
- Mercedes Benz “Greatness Lives Here” campaign
- C4 Atlanta, Hatch(ed) – Charmaine Minniefield Discusses Black Land Matters and the Edgewood Mural=
- “Not A Crime” – Campaign and the Edgewood Mural
