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Date: 5/2/2023
NORTHAMPTON — A community mural-making party on Mother’s Day weekend will celebrate the local land and the abundance of produce farmers grow and share in the valley.
On Saturday, May 13 from 1-3 p.m., anyone from the public is invited to help paint a 100-foot-long mural at the Pedestrian plaza between Thornes Marketplace and the E.J. Gare Parking Garage.
According to information from the Northampton Arts Council website, this mural is meant to revitalize the location of the Northampton Farmers’ Market and create opportunities for current farmers, shoppers, and folks who may not otherwise attend the market to feel a sense of ownership and participation in this space. The final product will eventually be placed in the E.J. Gare Garage, on the plaza where the Tuesday market happens.
“This mural is specifically about the farmers market, the Earth and color, and vibrancy,” said Sharon Leshner, a local Easthampton artist, teacher and muralist leading the design of the project.
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Leshner, whose art name is Sharona Color, said that her art deals a lot with uncovering the conversations we all have privately within ourselves that we may not always share publicly.
“What I’m doing in my community work is working with people to understand how they feel about things.” Leshner said. “There’s always a level of just finding out how people are feeling and finding a way to translate that through art in a public way.”
Those artistic attributes played a huge role in the process of this mural-making event. Back in January, a workshop was conducted at the Grow Food Northampton Winter Market to acquire community input on what people think about the farmers’ market in Northampton.
“For this particular mural, what we did with the community process is ask people ‘how does the farmers’ market make you feel,” said Leshner, who also founded The Color Collaborative, a local shared art studio space.
Through this community input, Leshner was able to create a design that celebrates the four seasons of New England as well as the abundance of land that permeates through the Pioneer Valley. She said she connected with local farmers in the area to get their perspective on the land and determine what they want to be represented in the mural.
“Living here in the valley is a very special place to live because of the land and the indigenous people that really originally settled this land,” Leshner said. “It was so special to make connections while I was making this mural…tending the earth and appreciating the Earth goes so deep here. We’re all so tied to the land.”
The mural features four different panels representing the four different seasons in New England. As an artist that deals a lot with vibrant colors, Leshner said she wanted the region’s unique color profile on full display.
“There’s just so much color during each time of year and there’s always a unique way of looking at our environment,” Leshner said. “I think that’s what the mural is about, just celebrating the diversity of the species and the land.”
Community Action Pioneer Valley and Grow Food Northampton are other crucial sponsors and supporters of this project. Aside from revitalizing this location, the project also aims to bring more awareness to the HIP/SNAP programs for people who are experiencing food insecurity. The hope is to create opportunities that allow people to feel more welcome at the market.
According to Alisa Klein, the executive director of Grow Food Northampton — a local food and farming justice organization — many aspects of the national industrial food business and big agribusiness are broken.
“Building a vibrant and sustainable local food system is a critical alternative to the ways in which agribusiness is causing destruction to the environment and not meeting the nutritional and other needs of eaters,” Klein said. “Grow Food Northampton is working to ensure that everyone, and especially community members who are grappling with food insecurity, has access to fresh, nutrient-dense locally grown farm food.”
She said the Tuesday markets are important because it is a place where local farmers and eaters can connect and celebrate the local food.
“The mural is a beautiful celebration of local food and the farms where it’s grown, as well, and we’re so happy to be a part of its creation and grateful to the Northampton Arts Council and Sharon for making it happen,” Klein added.
People of all ages and abilities are invited to participate in the mural-making process on May 13. Leshner said she traced out every single color in her studio, and the mural is split into numbered sections, which means people will be able to color in the rest of the design based on the number they pick when they arrive. There is also a special children’s table, Leshner said.
The event is a culmination of what has been an entirely community-driven project. “The community being involved…that’s all just as valuable, if not more valuable than the final product,” Leshner said.
“The final product is not just a wonderful mural, but it’s a representation of what people think and feel about the theme of the mural.”