Digital art display on Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural promotes COVID-19 awareness
![On Monday night, Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural is turned into an evolving piece of art as part of a project to attract attention to Create Health, a Black Lens wellness initiative designed to promote COVID-19 resources. Artist Sarah Turner projected artwork created for Create Health onto the mural, located at 244 W. Main Ave. (COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)](https://thumb.spokesman.com/uO6q6eDqVn9RLDznlEJuDvMVKgE=/600x0/media.spokesman.com/graphics/2018/07/sr-loader.png)
From paintings and digital projections to poetry and comic strips, works of art were projected onto Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural Monday night as part of a campaign to promote COVID-19 wellness while celebrating the social movement.
The display represented a collaboration between the Spokane-based digital art residency Laboratory, artist nonprofit Terrain and the Black Lens, an independent publication focused on Spokane’s Black community, for the Black Lens’ Create Health initiative.
Ginger Ewing, Terrain’s executive director, said the campaign’s goal is to bring COVID-19 resources to communities that have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
“What better way to highlight the work around Create Health and those disparities against a backdrop of a message that our lives matter?” she said.
The digital projection was created by Laboratory artist-in-residence Sarah Turner, who spent part of Monday night live -coding the display from a laptop stationed on the other side of the 244 W. Main Ave. parking lot.
![Sarah Turner projects artwork created for Create Health onto the Black Lives Matter mural located at 244 W. Main, for the community to enjoy, Monday, March 15, 2021. (COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)](https://thumb.spokesman.com/T_SfLIoTY5DG5ksKSvOB43Vwtpk=/1200x0/media.spokesman.com/photos/2021/03/15/60502c60cb8bc.hires.jpg)
The images embedded into the Black Lives Matter mural Monday night were produced by 10 artists for the Create Health campaign, Ewing said.
“What has come to fruition is the collaboration between multiple community organizations coming together for a singular cause. To me, that’s really beautiful and really powerful,” she said. “The transformational power that art has in order to open us up in a way to receive somebody else’s point of view, I think this is a really powerful testament to that.”
Information about featured artists and future events is available at createhealthspokane.com.
Monday night’s event drew other groups to participate.
Members of NAACP Spokane served refreshments. Meanwhile, activist group Spokane Community Against Racism displayed other messages – including “No More Stolen Sisters” – along nearby buildings separate from the Create Health campaign, Ewing said.