The Community Mural Institute

How do our public spaces currently tell us how to be, who we are, or where we’re going? How do we activate our public spaces with community voices? How can public murals help us claim our voices, celebrate our history and seed our communal futures? How do we as artists learn to use murals as a tool for community organizing?

There is increasing interest in murals as a means of creative place-keeping and particular interest in professional murals that involve the community in their creation. However, there are very few opportunities to learn how to meaningfully engage the community in the design and painting while still producing professional public murals. 

The CMI is a commitment to representation and in the relationships that come with being local to a place; we seek to train local artist communities with the tools that they need to represent their stories and the stories, histories, and dreams of their specific communities.

The Community Mural Institute combines online and in-person instruction, experiential learning, and professional mentorship. Through the Institute:

  • community paint parties are held to engage hundreds of people in the painting of the murals

  • beautiful new murals are created in your community, each guided by the input of a different community group

  • participating artists learn to independently create and install exceptional community-engaged polytab murals 

CMI murals start with facilitated community gatherings to identify themes, ideas and images that resonate with the community group. Then we guide our CMI muralists as they take these ideas and, with the guidance of an experienced muralist, design the mural which is then projected onto specially prepared mural fabric, creating a giant paint-by-numbers. These fabric panels are brought into the community for paint parties where any- and everyone can help paint.  The CMI muralists then do the detail work and over-painting in a studio before the mural is permanently installed on the wall.  The CMI Murals combine community input and the design skills of professional muralists, give hundreds of people the chance to actively participate in the mural’s creation, and last longer and weather better than murals painted directly on the wall.

How it works:

The CMI is a program that is sponsored by a city, cultural org, community resource center, etc. The CMI will work with you to create an Artists Call, identify mural walls and network with local community groups. Once our crew of local artists are selected, the CMI muralists (your local artists) get paid to take the 3 trainings associated with our 3 phases of fabrication and installation. Through the process, the CMI hosts community listening sessions and paint parties and creates permanent murals. The cost of the CMI covers all materials, lifts and wall prep, artist stipends, and our instruction and mentoring. 

The Community Mural Institute is right for Cities or Sponsor Organizations who:

  • are invested in resourcing their local arts community

  • are interested in using the creation of murals as a creative placemaking tool within their community

  • want to invigorate the visual landscape of their community with local stories, themes, and images.

  • want to invest in high quality, professional murals that will last for 15+ years

Instructors

The Community Mural Institute is designed and run by Greta McLain, the Founder and Artistic Director of GoodSpace Murals and Britt Ruhe, the Director of Common Wealth Murals and Producer of Fresh Paint Springfield.

  • Britt Ruhe

    Britt Ruhe is the founder and Director of Common Wealth Murals, (CWM). .Since 2019 CWM has facilitated the creation of more than 40 murals, over half of which were created in collaboration with community. CWM produces Fresh Paint Springfield, an annual mural festival bringing neighborhood-specific fine art to diverse neighborhoods across Springfield, collaborates in the production of Springfield’s annual graffiti jam, and has produced window installations, bike kiosk installations, sidewalk art installations, and other temporary public art installations. For over 20 years, Britt has led non-profit organizations, applying her skills in community organizing, project management, fiscal management, and public relations to create transformative opportunities for people to work together to improve their own communities. Britt holds a BA in Community Development and an MBA from UMass.

  • Greta McLain

    Greta McLain, Owner and Artistic Director of GoodSpace Murals, has over 15 years of mural making experience. Greta uses muralism to explore the ways that art can bring communities together, the power of visual language to activate voice, and the potential of art as a vehicle for hands-on organizing and educating. She has spent her career studying s new and traditional mural techniques in order to fine tune her mural practice for community participation. She has created over 50 projects in and around the United States (Minnesota, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,North Dakota, and California) as well as internationally with works in Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and France. Greta works out of Minneapolis and travels around the country/world muraling and teaching wherever community art can be activated as a tool for positive community engagement. She earned her BA from the University of California Davis and her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Want to bring the CMI to your community?