‘Paint Our Legacy’ — a fun day for the whole family!

The Leeds Center for the Arts Youth Board is prepar­ing for an amaz­ing com­mu­ni­ty event called Paint Our Legacy on June 4^th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This will be a day of fun cel­e­brat­ing art and our com­mu­ni­ty at Legacy Grove Park in Winchester.

Wylie Caudill, the well-known local mural­ist, will be design­ing an orig­i­nal mur­al for the retain­ing wall at Legacy Grove Park, with com­mu­ni­ty involvement.

“Our idea was we want­ed some sort of last­ing piece of art for our com­mu­ni­ty. Something peo­ple can enjoy for as long as it is there and some­thing that could bring us togeth­er. We went through a cou­ple of ideas but decid­ed on a mur­al and we all dis­cussed how we loved doing paint by num­bers. We thought this would be a per­fect way to have each mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty have a spe­cial, phys­i­cal part of the mur­al,” explains Youth Board President Ella Cooper.

“We had all unan­i­mous­ly agreed we want­ed pub­lic art. We felt to be heard, we want­ed some­thing every­one could be a part of. When we saw the wall at Legacy Grove, we just knew we need­ed to make our mark there,” adds Isadora Wise, Youth Board Secretary.

Not just make their mark, but include the whole com­mu­ni­ty! The event will bring com­mu­ni­ty par­tic­i­pa­tion in paint­ing the mur­al, but will also include many fam­i­ly-friend­ly activ­i­ties, such as a bub­ble sta­tion, face paint­ing, and food trucks. Community part­ners includ­ing the Clark County Public Library, Clark County Animal Shelter, Leeds Center for the Arts, Winchester Black History and Heritage Committee, and Winchester Inspired by Nature, will all have booths with var­i­ous activ­i­ties as well.

The stu­dents also decid­ed they want­ed the mur­al, depict­ing var­i­ous flow­ers and a root sys­tem, to have an impor­tant mes­sage. Cooper explains, “The sig­nif­i­cance of the dif­fer­ent flow­ers rep­re­sents how each of us has bloomed to become a dif­fer­ent, unique, won­der­ful per­son. However, we all share roots in Winchester and this community.”

“We decid­ed on show­ing change and growth, while still being togeth­er as one, as that is how we want­ed to see the com­mu­ni­ty years from now. We want­ed every­one to be a part of this mur­al, as it shows togeth­er­ness. What bet­ter way to show togeth­er­ness than paint­ing this love­ly mes­sage togeth­er,” added Wise.

The Leeds Youth Board is a group of high school stu­dents from Winchester and the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties that are pas­sion­ate about lead­er­ship, art, and mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in their com­mu­ni­ty. Jathan Briscoe, Youth Board Vice President explains, “The thing I like most about being on the Youth Board is that as the youth our voic­es and ideas are heard by com­mu­ni­ty members.”

Paint Our Legacy will be held at Legacy Grove Park, 1107 W Lexington Ave, Winchester, KY, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 4^th. Everyone is invit­ed to attend.

This project is gen­er­ous­ly spon­sored by the Greater Clark Foundation and the Family Resource Youth Services Center.