DOORS OF HOPE COMMUNITY MURAL
Mural | 2023
Doors of Hope, West Sand Lake, NY
The Doors of Hope Community Mural project aimed to foster intergenerational conversations and expressions of hope and resilience within the Sand Lake community, a town that has since the 2010 opioid crisis continued to lose young adults to drug addiction and overdoses.
The project began with a public idea workshop where community members, partnering organizations, and students from Averill Park High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) group shared their interpretations of a 'door of hope.' With guidance from the project team, the students, counselors, and community members collaboratively developed and implemented a cohesive mural design. The intergenerational exchanges continued throughout the project, from initial discussions to spontaneous conversations during mural implementation, where students shared their progress and were celebrated community members of all ages.
The completion of Sand Lake's first mural not only adds visual interest to the town but also sustains a meaningful dialogue about hope. The mural's narrative explores opposing elements like night and day, light and dark, rainbows and thunder, and rain and sunshine. The students emphasized that hope is a spectrum, sometimes arising from acknowledging the darkness.
The project was a collaborative effort involving Arts Letters & Numbers, Doors of Hope, the Rensselaer County Mental Health Student Assistance Program (SAP), and the Nopiates Committee. Directed by Frida Foberg, Ira Baumgarten and Kayla Jolin.
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Arts Center of the Capital Region.