ROCKINGHAM — A group of Richmond County’s seniors and foster children came together to create a mural to hang in the Department of Social Services that will serve as a symbol of the value of the exchange of information and experiences between generations.
The mural came together over the last year as a collaboration between Arts Richmond, Aging Services, Health and Human Services and DSS, with the help of world-renowned Nigerian artist Tunde Afolayan, called the Generations Arts Project. The mural depicts elders and young people — who have their headphones in — reading a book with the words, “In youth we learn, in age we understand. Together we build our community.”
In the foreground, there is a tablet, an iWatch, a smartphone and a Nintendo Switch and in the background there are people kayaking on Hitchcock Creek. One of the young artists, Chad Mayfield, said the mural is an attempt to express the importance of elders to a community.
“It’s an idea to put the gadgets down and sit together and learn something,” Mayfield. “We can each learn from each other — the elders and the children are both reading the book.”
DSS Director Robbie Hall explained that there are more seniors alive today than ever before and that this is an opportunity to gain wisdom and to reflect on the true makeup of our communities.
“In today’s age, what do we spend most of our time doing? We spend that time in front of a computer screen, we spend that time in front of a television, we spend that time away from the people that mean a lot to us,” Hall said. “This is a way that we can connect people through art, through communication et cetera to give other outlets for how we interact with today’s world.”
A dedication ceremony for the projct was held Tuesday.
In an interview with DSS staff presented in a video that will play continuously on the community channel, Afolayan said that while the children and seniors worked on the painting, he watched as information was exchanged in both directions. One child asked of their elder, “How did you make it through life?”
“Experience is the best teacher,” Afolayan said.
The first part of the Generations Arts Project was to convert the “Hallway of Doom” connecting the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health and Human Services, so named because of it’s long bare walls, into “The Generations Art Hall” where original art made by partner organizations across the county will be displayed, with a goal of expanding to other sites.
The paintings adorning the hallway currently were done by seniors and foster children last summer, which Hall said he hoped would communicate more about what DSS and HHS do than the usual placards on the wall with the fine print about department policy.
Mayfield explained that many of the artists hid personal secrets in the mural. For his part, Mayfield said he hid a classic red toy truck on the bank of the creek, which represents things that are often forgotten in old age. He said he included it in part because he loves researching old vehicles and because he hopes to be able to repair them in the future.
Bunny Critcher, one of the senior artists, said she put a smiley face on a tree because she felt it captured her feelings about the whole experience after being initially uncertain about it.
“I was a little bit curious about how this was all going to work and then by the end of the week, watching everybody collaborate on this — they had so much fun,” Critcher said. “I’m not an artist … I did the smiley face because it just made me happy.”
Another artist who put a secret in the mural was Hannah Adair Smith, 20, who was pregnant with a little girl at the time. Smith painted a pink foot on the bank of the creek.
“When my baby gets older, she can come here and see that I thought about her,” Smith said. “Now that she’s here, it’s a wonderful feeling knowing … (that the mural) shows her place in my heart and her place in the world.”
