WHAT: Mayor Jamie Mayo and the Monroe City Council are pleased to join Community Affairs Director Robert Johnson and Masur Museum of Art Director Evelyn Stewart to announce and invite the media and public to a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially commemorate the new mural inside the Monroe Civic Center Arena. The event will be held 10:30 am Friday, August 10, 2018, in the Arena lobby, located at 401 Lea Joyner Memorial Expressway.
ARTIST:
Drék Davis American, b. 1975
Vitus Shell American, b. 1978
MURAL NAME AND DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY (Courtesy of the Artists):
Songs from the Silver Waters, 2017-18.
Adhesive Vinyl on Windows
This collaborative work, inspired in part by the murals of Aaron Douglas, aims to acknowledge the broad history of Ouachita Parish while highlighting the purpose and function of the Monroe Civic Center. “Silver Waters”; which is how historians say the Ouachita people described the river, suggests richness, radiance and motion. Whether riverboats, musical notes, or the current, we are drawn together to create new experiences. 2
The ribbons represent the Ouachita river (and regional waters) and the butterflies represent nature. Referencing the function of the Civic Center, I included singers (and horns) whose tones emanate as butterflies. The butterflies symbolize the soothing and transformative qualities of activities which take place in this space. Lastly, the microphone bears the label K.L.I.C. (AM radio). As referenced in The Monroeians: The Pine Street Blues Collective, by James O. McHenry, K.L.I.C. (then located on Berg Jones Lane) served as a source of entertainment, education, and as a marker. I recognized that the Monroe Civic Center embodies all those same attributes. Broadcasting ideas and bringing people together.
We would like to thank the Monroe – West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau for their grant funding to support this project.
SIMILAR CEREMONIES WILL SOON BE HELD FOR MURALS RECENTLY INSTALLED AT:
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE GARDENS & ZOO
AND
THE MONROE REGIONAL AIRPORT 