Artist Tyrone Small and a student artist team has begun work this week on a Black Lives Matter mural on the side of the CommunityWorx building facing West Main at the intersection of Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro.
The Carrboro Town Council selected the muralist and a young artist team, as well as the mural rendering, at its Nov. 17 meeting. The Council supported recommendations from the Arts Committee for Tyrone Small as the muralist and the rendering of Ash Granda-Bondurant, Carina Rockart-Grade and Theo Preston to merge with the rendering of Cyani Jacobs.
The team expects to complete the mural by Dec. 20. Work on the project will take place in the afternoons and weekends, and will be done with mask-wearing and social distancing protocols.
“We are extremely excited for this new public art project,” said Anita Jones-McNair, the Town of Carrboro Race and Equity Officer and Director of the Recreation, Parks and Cultural Resources Department. “The Black Lives Matter mural highlights and advocates for values that are important to Carrboro. It expresses our community’s acknowledgment of and opposition to systemic and institutional racism.”
Mr. Small describes his experience as follows: “I'm a visual artist that recently moved from Murrells Inlet, S.C. to Raleigh, N.C. Since moving to North Carolina, I've seriously made art my passion. My first piece was displayed publicly at The Flying Burrito in Raleigh! I recently finished painting my first picnic table and mural in Carrboro, N.C., at Johnny's Gone Fishing at 901 W. Main St. in Carrboro.”
The Carrboro mural team was selected from a pool of 17 applicants, who were asked to submit work samples and mural proposals. The Black Lives Matter mural will cost an estimated $5,000 to compensate artists and for supplies.
Shortly after the killing of George Floyd in May, the Carrboro Town Council began conversations about placing a Black Lives Matter mural on a town street or building reflecting the Town’s support. In addition to this mural, the Council directed a Black Lives Matter installation at the Carrboro Century Center at 100 N. Greensboro St. and another is slated for Carrboro Town Hall. A request for estimates for this project was recently distributed to a number of muralists.
For more information, please contact Communications Manager Catherine Lazorko at clazorko@townofcarrboro.org
###