We begin the work in earnest on the mural! 

In preparation for the mural, I created a detailed outline for the final video. This video documenting the making process of the mural will be shown at the museum’s annual celebration of their opening day, which is on Children’s Day and also coincides with our main mural unveiling this year. The general concept for this outline follows both our average day and the average emotional arc that we would all go through each day: awkwardness in the morning, realizing how fun the project is, getting sweaty and tired by afternoon, and leaving with a sense of meaning at night. Using interviews from across each of the days, along with plenty of clips, timelapses, and photos, I hope to be able to document this journey soon. 

Each day, groups of volunteers (local residents, students, members of the museum) come in the morning and the afternoon to paint the mural for around three hours per session. Day one was Wednesday, where a group of local middle school students started the week off strong with their enthusiasm for the project. A mix of middle school, high school, and college students along with many adults from the community helped out. This week, we probably had about 60 or 70 people come out to help us! 

My responsibility was to be on site for the entire process, which meant being on my feet for 8 hours each day setting up refreshments, filming and interviewing the volunteers, and answering questions about their tasks in the absence of the artists. Despite how physically taxing this week was (it even hit 80 degrees for the latter half the week), the new human connections I saw being formed really inspired me to keep pushing. One woman from San Francisco was pursuing a new challenge by working in Korea, despite being Korean American with no prior ability to speak the language. She became close with a volunteer who was actually also an artist, and I saw them make plans and exchange business cards as they left. 

Although my project has seen changes since my initial drafting based on the timeline and needs of the museum, I couldn’t be more excited to continue exploring this unique opportunity and to make lasting relationships with the driven, inspiring people I get to work for.