Portable Mural Installation at Rhode Island PBS
|
|
Time to read 2 min
A portable mural installation that tells the story of community and communication
Client: Rhode Island PBS & The Public's Radio
Location: Providence, RI
Date: June 2025
Size: 9' x 25'
Mural Installation Brief
Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Radio recently merged. To celebrate this new era of public media, they wanted to commission a portable mural in the station's community room.
It was important that the mural be portable, since so much can change when two organizations merge. They were hoping for artwork that could be hung and potentially moved in the future, if the station continues to have evolving space requirements. A portable mural means that if the room is repurposed, the art can simply be moved to a more suitable location.
They wanted to mural to reflect the work of Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Media, the organizations' commitment to community and diversity, and life in Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts.
The Inspiration
“Telling Our Stories Together” is a custom mural design that reflects Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio’s shared values: Stronger Together. I started thinking about how I would tell this story in a way that invites viewers to engage. We associate stamps with sending letters or postcards, or literal invitations. In the digital age, stamps also represent our literary and historical past and our current desire for community connections.
The hand lettered statement “Telling Our Stories Together” speaks to both the recent merging of two legacy institutions, as well as the dedication to civic engagement. In this way, “together” applies both to the internal organization itself and to its external community partnerships.
Rhode Island PBS and TPR is trusted in the community because of its commitment to journalistic integrity and excellence. Telling stories that matter is a core message, which I have represented in this portable mural through some of the tools we use when capturing and communicating stories.
Rhode Island PBS and TPR serves diverse audiences across Rhode Island and South Eastern Massachusetts. I represented a little slice of that diversity through two hands of different colors. One of the hands is signing “I love you,” which represents the deaf community and also the diversity of so many languages and cultures, more broadly.
I included symbols of life in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in this piece, including an anchor for Rhode Island and Elm leaves for Massachusetts.
Portable Mural Process
While I have painted portable murals before, I've never created an installation like this! Since it needed to be portable, I knew that I'd be using plywood. But once I realized I wanted each piece to be a stamp that made up a grid, I had to think outside of the box!
I hired an amazing woodworker to cut the iconic scalloped edges of the stamp. Each piece was custom cut and sized. I had so much fun painting from my home studio, though some of the stamps were a little too large to fit on my easel!
The next consideration was how to install the pieces. Plywood is fairly heavy, so I used French Cleats to mount the pieces onto the wall. Sturdy enough to last for years, but also easily removable and reconfigurable. Often portable murals are painted on one large surface.
Conclusion
I shared several videos of the process behind this portable mural installation project, but here's one that shows the big reveal! You can find more on my Instagram, including behind the scenes of painting and installation.
I loved working on this portable mural installation for Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Radio. It was incredibly exciting to tour the station, and a fun and challenging puzzle!
