CHILDREN'S COALITION TEAMS UP WITH NORTHEAST LOUISIANA ARTS COUNCIL + CITY OF MONROE + LOCAL ARTIST, VITUS SHELL

• The Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana is bringing more visual art into Downtown Monroe. Supported in part by a grant from the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council with funds from the City of Monroe, this initiative will include a mural within our Family Garden by Vitus Shell.

The mission of the Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana is to “Create communities where children and families thrive.” The project CHILDREN THRIVE, seeks to capture the essence of this mission in our community by creating the first of a series of public art mural panels designed by muralist Vitus Shell and painted with help of children and youth in our community. 

Monroe native, Vitus Shell, will work with a group of artists and local children and youth to implement the proposed project. Vitus Shell has exhibited at universities, museums, and private galleries across the country; painting a mural for the National Civil Rights Museum's NBA Pioneers exhibit; and being commissioned to do public art by the Memphis UrbanArt Commission. His artwork allows aspects of African American history to meet the complexities of African American culture in present day.

The mural will be on the fence that surrounds the Children’s Coalition Family Garden. The Children's Coalition Family Garden garden is open to the community and contains an early childhood outdoor learning center and an edible garden that feeds over 100 children in our Early Head Start centers. Over the past year, the garden has become a visible symbol of the revitalization of downtown Monroe. Situated between the Salvation Army Homeless Shelter and the Monroe Transit Bus Depot, the Children’s Coalition Family literally blooms in a desert of abandoned buildings and grey fields. The Family Garden surrounds the main office of the Children’s Coalition—a one-stop-shop that connects families to child care and parent education. In addition to the thousands of constituents served by Coalition programs each year, the garden hosts hundreds of community members each month as part of Super Saturday, a chance for families to participate in garden-based play and volunteer opportunities. 
 
Families will be able to witness and participate in the growth of the CHILDREN THRIVE mural by observing the artistic design process in action, and then lending a hand to help create a high-quality public work of art of the course of three months. The CHILDREN THRIVE mural will celebrate who we are as a community and who we serve as an organization, by highlighting the African-American perspective in relation to the land and demonstrate how art can help CHILDREN THRIVE. 

---

ARTIST

ARTS COUNCIL