Altered mural fuels racial debate in Prescott
by Dennis Wagner - Jun. 4, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
A group of artists has been asked to lighten
the faces of children depicted in a giant
public mural at a Prescott school.
The project's leader says he was ordered to
lighten the skin tone after complaints about
the children's ethnicity. But the school's
principal says the request was only to fix
shading and had nothing to do with political
pressure.
The "Go on Green" mural, which covers two
walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School,
was designed to advertise a campaign for
environmentally friendly transportation. It
features portraits of four children, with a
Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.
R.E. Wall, director of Prescott's Downtown
Mural Project, said he and other artists were
subjected to slurs from motorists as they
worked on the painting at one of the town's
most prominent intersections.
"We consistently, for two months, had people
shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall
said. "We had children painting with us, and
here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks)
and (epithet for Hispanics)."
Wall said school Principal Jeff Lane pressed
him to make the children's faces appear
happier and brighter.
"It is being lightened because of the
controversy," Wall said, adding that "they
want it to look like the children are coming
into light."
Lane said that he received only three
complaints about the mural and that his
request for a touch-up had nothing to do
with political pressure. "We asked them to fix
the shading on the children's faces," he said.
"We were looking at it from an artistic view.
Nothing at all to do with race."
City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a
public campaign on his talk show at Prescott
radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the
mural.
In a broadcast last month, according to the
Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly
complained that the most prominent child in
the painting is African-American, saying: "To
depict the biggest picture on the building as
a Black person, I would have to ask the
question: Why?"
Blair could not be reached for comment
Thursday. In audio archives of his radio
show, Blair discusses the mural. He insists
the controversy isn't about racism but says
the mural is intended to create racial
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controversy where none existed before.
"Personally, I think it's pathetic," he says.
"You have changed the ambience of that
building to excite some kind of diversity
power struggle that doesn't exist in Prescott,
Arizona. And I'm ashamed of that."
Faces in the mural were drawn from
photographs of children enrolled at Miller
Valley, a K-5 school with 380 students and
the highest ethnic mix of any school in
Prescott. Wall said thousands of town
residents volunteered or donated to the
project, the fourth in a series of community
murals painted by a group of artists known
as the "Mural Mice."
The public art, funded by a $5,000 state
grant through the Prescott Alternative
Transportation Center, was selected by
school students and faculty.
"The parents and children love it," Lane said.