A new mural at 339 Pine St., featuring images of Burlington youth, is nearing completion.
The rainbow-hued work is by Juniper Creative, a Vermont-based Black and Dominican family collective. Will Kasso Condry, Jennifer Herrera Condry and their daughter Alexa Herrera Condry have previously created several murals in the Burlington area.
The Pine Street mural, located near the farmers market, was commissioned by Burlington City Arts, the Burlington Police Department, Burlington Permitting and Inspections, and the Church Street Marketplace.
Sara Katz, assistant director at Burlington City Arts, said city officials had noticed an increase in unsanctioned tagging during the pandemic. They wanted to make the building at 339 Pine to look cared for, while also commissioning artists who appreciate graffiti culture.
“We thought it would be a great way to talk about coming back after being closed down for so long — to put something really joyful on the side of this building,” Katz said.
Kasso Condry has described Juniper Creative’s work as having an Afro-futuristic aesthetic. It incorporates imagery from science fiction and the natural environment.
This particular mural includes portraits of Black students from Champlain Elementary School and Edmunds Middle School, some of whom will be painted with bee or butterfly wings. Sections of the wall will have excerpts of poems written by Burlington youth.
The artists also held two community paint days, where both children and adults painted cutout pieces that will be collaged into the final work.
Herrera Condry said they’d received criticism during previous mural projects that art featuring Black subjects didn’t fit or represent the Burlington community. For this project, they intentionally wanted to paint Black youth who live and attend school near the Pine Street site, to push back on that idea.
“We wanted to make sure that we were continuing to remind people that this is not an invisible demographic,” Hererra Condry said.
Earlier in his career as a muralist, Kasso Condry noticed Black youth were often represented in public art only after they had died and been memorialized. He said Juniper Creative’s work seeks to change that.
“Having local children in this mural, who live here, who are alive and well and thriving, it’s important for them to see themselves,” Kasso Condry said. “And not just them, but other children that look like them, and for adults that look like them, for people that typically go unnoticed until they’re dead. It starts with the art.”
