The Thurston County Food Bank is tucked away on a side street in downtown Olympia. It’s not a big building and holds no fancy lettering. But thanks to a grant from Olympia’s Parking and Business Improvement Area Board (PBIA), and the students of NOVA School, visibility may now be a draw.
Art teacher Eric Fleming has been a fixture at the NOVA School for the past 16 years.
Eric says he first got the idea to add a mural to the plain food bank walls this past winter. He wanted his students to tackle a community project on a larger scale. Eric also has a deep fondness for downtown Olympia and wanted to share it with others. “I think a lot of folks in our community don’t recognize how amazing our downtown is.” That’s when he asked the PBIA to step in to help with a grant.
Next, a call was made to local artists to oversee the project. Artist Jean Nagai, well-known around town for his amazing murals, submitted a proposal. “His understanding of large scale projects, public art and how to take simple imagery and make it look complex and beautiful is amazing,” Eric says. The PBIA also realized how Jean would contribute to the project. He was chosen as the local artist to head the mural project.
The Thurston County Food Bank was eager to be a part of the project as well. Executive Director Robert Coit says the particular area where the mural would be located has been tagged with graffiti in the past. This project would provide something to catch the eye and make people notice the food bank. “Volunteers cross the spectrum of ages and giving youth an opportunity to be active members of our community helps all of us,” Robert says.
With everyone on board, Eric and Jean next worked together to educate NOVA students about the process of creating murals. Eric shares, “I don’t think, at the beginning, they really understood the scope of the project.” The kids started with ideas about what they would want to express with the mural, including depicting healthy foods.
Eric then had his students draw images of what they wanted to contribute, but he says it was hard for them to visualize the scope. So he stepped things up and gave each student a 4×4 foot sheet of paper to use. Once they finished drawing, the students laid the images side by side to get the full effect. It was this visual that brought things together for his students. “I think that’s when the kids were like, whoa, that’s crazy.”
Finally, it was time to take their art downtown. The students worked in shifts over the course of one week with Eric and Jean overseeing the project. They traced their images onto the wall then painted the drawings with vibrant colors. Eric says it was great to see all the kids putting the drawing skills they learned earlier in the year to use in a different way. He adds, “It’s great to help them think about making purposeful art that’s seen by the public, expressing a message they believe in. That’s powerful stuff, especially at a young age.”
Eric says he would like the community to take away many different things from the mural, just like the students did. He says any time you can expose people to more art, then it’s likely to help spawn even more art. And with the mural located at the Thurston County Food Bank, he hopes to highlight a great organization in the process. “Any attention we can draw to the food bank is good because this place is incredible,” Eric says. “What they offer for our community is such a beautiful thing.”
For more information, visit the Thurston County Food Bank online or NOVA School’s website. Then drive to 220 Thurston Ave NE to see the new mural at the Thurston County Food Bank.
