SACA Celebrates Completion of Community Mural on Pershing Avenue
A new mural by seed project mural artists Salina Almanzar-Oree and Claudia Rojas is now located at 545 Pershing Avenue in Lancaster. The mural was presented to the public on Saturday, October 28 during a community block party hosted by SACA and the Pershing Avenue neighbors who have initiated many community improvement projects over the past year. The event celebrated the transformation of the neighborhood while honoring the history of the 500 block of Pershing, the Centro Hispano building’s former iteration as the Boys Club.
The mural was initiated in 2022 by a group of neighbors and co-facilitators of the seed project, Salina Almanzar-Oree, Claudia Rojas, and Josh Graupera. The neighbors meet weekly with SACA’s Jack Howell to discuss various community improvement projects. In the winter of 2022, the seed project began a series of creative workshops to tease out ideas and imagery to include in the final design of the mural. The wall, which is located on the side of SACA’s El Centro Hispano facility, had been a topic of conversation and neighbors expressed a desire for something that told the story of the block.
According to Jesus Molina, a resident of Pershing and subject whose hand is painted into the mural, “The idea for a butterfly theme came from his neighbor Cassandra Owens.” Molina noted that there is special historical significance to several of the images embedded in the Monarchs’ wings, including the depiction of General “Black Jack Pershing” for whom the street was renamed during the First World War, replacing a German street name. Pershing was nicknamed “Black Jack” because he often expressed his admiration for the Black soldiers under his command, some of whom are buried at the African American Stevens-Greenland Cemetery in southeast Lancaster, where SACA installed a historical marker in 2021.
Additional imagery, provided by Gerald Wilson and LancasterHistory, includes the renaming ceremony for Pershing Avenue (then Freiburg), a Sanborn insurance map, images of Boys Club members partaking in various field activities, and present-day images of members of the senior center playing dominoes and bingo.
In the early Spring of 2022, the group of neighbors selected a final design presented by seed project co-facilitators Salina Almanzar-Oree and Claudia Rojas. The mural is composed of a stylized sky sweeping across the length of the building. Monarch butterflies fly from Jesus Molina’s hand across the facade of the building. The Monarch is symbolic of migration and change as well as the international symbol for mental health. Below the butterflies are native flora, echinacea purpurea, and mountain laurel.
The project was funded in part by PA Council for the Arts (PCA) and the Regional Foundation made possible by Wells Fargo. Sarah Merritt, Director of PA Creative Communities & the Creative Economy for PCA stated, “This mural reinforces the value of art in creative placemaking, which is the process of creating quality places where people want to live, work and play.”
The mural work kicked off with an art festival in June 2023 followed by mural cloth work in the artist’s studios. Installation of the mural cloth and the final phase of the project began on September 24. As of October 28, the community can now enjoy the mural in its fully completed form for many years to come.
