Updates on the Lake Apopka Farmworker Memorial Mural

 

The Lake Apopka Farmworker Memorial Mural is about to get a well needed and deserved new home!

    Our beloved mural was originally on the side of a building owned by The Big Potato Foundation in Apopka. Unfortunately, we had to relocate the mural, and have been struggling to find a proper home for it for the past year and a half. In the meantime, it's been stored in the Billie Dean Community Garden. Unfortunately, the elements have worn the art project down a bit- more about that later.

    We've finally received full permission from the city to install posts outside of aforementioned garden to rehang our mural there; we will break ground on this on Saturday, April 15th! Once the mural is back up, the restorative work begins! We'll need to touch up any parts of the mural that have faded off, and then re-seal the every board to protect the paint. We expect that some of the wood may have to be replaced altogether, particularly the "3-D" accents such as the oranges on the tree. Along with all of that, there's a part of the mural that we're missing entirely. While most of the project was painted on removable wooden boards like you see in the photos, part of the tree, and a big yellow sun above the piece were painted directly on the building. We plan to make a new sun and tree to add to the newly rehomed mural soon. First thing is first, though, and that's to get the main parts of the mural back to it's former glory!

    We plan to finish this project how we started it- with our community! Once the construction crew gets the panels up, we're going to begin organizing volunteer opportunities for the community to come together to restore this artwork. Stay tuned... more to come very soon on this exciting project!

by Finn Spencer