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Donated items tell community's stories CELEBRATION >> Mosaic mural to be unveiled

July 6, 2007 12:35 am

By LAURA L. HUTCHISON

A community art project that's been in the works since February will be unveiled this evening.

Hundreds of hands created the MOREart! mosaic mural, on the back of a warehouse wall at Roxbury Farm and Garden Center, during its installation last month.

Fredericksburg school students began working in February on the mural, designed to promote diversity and understanding.

Founding members of the Multicultural OutReach Effort (MORE), members of the youth Art Team, and people who donated in various ways prior to the installation were invited to donate items to include in the mosaic's border. They were asked to share the reasons for choosing the item they did.

Here are a few of their stories:

Gaye Adegbalola, Musical notes

Perhaps the greatest source of pride for the black community in Fredericksburg in the late 1950s and early '60s was the Walker-Grant High School band! It was a time of segregation and a time when blacks were called inferior. Yet, there was a collective hope in our community when we were blessed with a young woman band director, Blonnie P. Tipton. She had a vision and the determination that we could be the best in the state--regardless of the size of the school, the lack of instruments and uniforms, practice facilities, etc.

My parents, Clarence and Gladys Todd, helped to organize the entire black community to raise the funds to make Blon's dream, and our collective dream, come true. The Walker-Grant High School "Fighting Tiger" Band was indeed the best in the state--earning a superior ++ rating playing Themes from Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony and innumerable additional awards. I played first chair flute in concert band and piccolo during marching band. Many of us made All State Band several years.

At our spring concert in 1959, my parents were given a plaque for "Outstanding Contributions to the Walker-Grant Band." This plaque has adorned my music room for many years. I have removed the notes from it to be placed in the MOREart! mosaic. They represent hard work, the overcoming of adversity, the pride of community. For me, now a professional musician, they also represent how we should all strive to find "PEACE THRU MUSIC."

Roy E. McAfee, Fishing lure

What can you put on a wall that will show what your heritage is all about? How can you encapsulate the lessons you are taught by your predecessors? The answer escaped me until my hand was once again pricked by an object that I had avoided using for many years.

At first glance, this is a dirty, bent and used fishing lure. It is. It is dirty because of the many times it was cast while my grandfather spoke his words of wisdom to me. It is bent because Grandfather thought that things work better with a little character to them. It is used because it was used the last time my grandfather took me fishing.

I took it from my tackle box to put on the wall. It reminds me that often things of value are a little dirty, a little bent and a little used.

Andrea Shreve Taylor, Unitarian Universalist mosaic pendant

My ancestry is English, Scottish, Danish, Bohemian and Welsh. With so many countries in our ethnic background, our family did not identify with any one in particular. Instead, one of our primary sources of "cultural" identity was our church. This pendant is of a chalice, which is the symbol of the UU religion. It is done in a mosaic style, which is symbolic of my passion and profession: being a mosaic artist.

Keith 'RAGS' Boykin, skull belt buckle

When a skull is found, you know you are looking at a human. We are all the same in this way and at this level it does not matter what your social standing, bedroom preferences, political affiliations, color, race or religion are.

We are all the same.

Lanetta and Norman Schools Brass doorknob

Inside doorknob from Moncure Conway House (circa 1807). Probably from 1825-1850s period, during time Conway family was in residence. Family members of M.D. Conway and house slaves--Eliza and Dunmore Gwinn--most likely touched it many times. In July 1862, M.D. Conway accompanied over 30 family slaves to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to be free. Conway House is a designated Underground Railroad/Network to Freedom site.

Suzanne Moe, Torah

My mother's mother (my grandmother), Sadie Breier, was from a Polish family. My mother's father (my grandfather), Philip Marenberg, was from a Russian family.

The Torah Scroll is the sacred book of the Jews . It consists of the first five books of Moses. The beauty of the Torah is that it can be read by rich and poor alike, dispersed or ghettoed observers.

Study is the heart of the Jewish religious practice. It provides the highest mode of worship and represents learning as an act of love. Basically, "Torah is both the arrow and the heart of Judaism"-and a beautiful representation of my heritage. The Scroll of the Torah that is included in the MOREart! wall comes from Israel, and was displayed on my grandparents' dresser for years. It honors my mother, Ruth, my uncle, Paul, and my grandparents Sadie and Philip.

Laura L. Hutchison: 540/374-5485
Email: lhutchison@freelancestar.com