Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a national organization dedicated to ending gun violence. Over the weekend the local chapter channeled its message through a creation of a mural on Genesee street in Rochester. The mural is a collaboration with the community art intervention group Wall Therapy.
Jeremy Tjhung does community outreach for Moms Demand Action Rochester,
He says the idea to do a mural came after his group received a grant for an arts project.
“So if you are going to do a mural in Rochester, who do you call first? You call Wall Therapy," said Tjhung.
"And we felt very strongly as a member of the coalition against gun violence that it be in neighborhood that has been affected by gun violence. So we got in the car and we started in the Boys and Girls Club up the street and we started driving up and down the street looking for available walls." Tjhung explained.
Wall Therapy’s co-curator and lead organizer, Erich Lehman says this project was just what his organization was looking for.
“As we were looking at what Wall Therapy was gonna do for the summer and some of the challenges that we were facing. We decided that we wanted to focus on these smaller partnerships to have better direct impact with community," Lehman said.
Britany Williams is the artist commissioned for the project. She says it is important for her work to reflect the people in the community she hopes to inspire.
“It's important that I put the representation of us on the wall because we don't see it a lot. And for people in the neighborhood to say, ‘oh that's what we need in here, you know we need more art,’ that means more to me than putting anything on the wall. It just shows that they just have sense of pride and ownership of it,” Williams said.
A ribbon cutting ceremony unveiling the mural will be held on June 8.