Community-painted mural installed in Greensboro

GREENSBORO — A new piece of community artwork is on display in Greensboro at the corner of Sunset Avenue and Main Street. On Saturday, a 4-by-24-foot painting was installed on the side of Tenchi Spanish American Kitchen.

The Choptank Tolomato Legacy Project and its executive director Jimmy Reynolds spearheaded the project, ensuring that hundreds of locals in and near Greensboro could put their own touches on the mural.

“Our intention was to do the mural on panels, take them into the community,” Reynolds said. “ … Get the mural project to where the people live, work and play so that they can be involved.”

Funded by the Maryland State Arts Commission’s Public Arts Across Maryland program, the mural includes portraits of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna Murray Douglass, who was born in Denton.

There are underground railroad quilt patterns, a depiction of the old site of the Greensboro Volunteer Fire Company Carnival and imagery honoring the town’s Native American and Guatemalan roots.

“We’re knitting all these local stories together,” Reynolds said. “So we’re hitting everybody in the community, so everybody’s involved.”

The mural was taken to Greensboro Elementary School and the Benedictine School, Reynolds said, along with the Whitsitt Center, an addiction treatment center in Chestertown. Residents also painted the mural onsite in Greensboro during select Saturdays.

Reynolds pointed to a lack of transportation that motivated Choptank Tolomato, a cultural literacy and arts nonprofit based in Sudlersville, to begin taking projects to “outer communities” around two years ago.

“It’s not regular outside of towns, and it’s really hard for parents to get their kids around,” Reynolds said. “So that’s why we’re out in the communities.”

Choptank Tolomato works on projects up and down the Eastern Shore, in areas such as Kent Narrows, Centreville and Chestertown. It strives to involve underserved communities and children with learning disabilities.

Audrey Copeland, a student at Kent County High School, worked as the mural project’s intern this spring and summer. Reynolds said Copeland helped involve fellow students with the painting.

As an artist and educator, Reynolds hopes that he can continue to provide visual-based education for the youth. He noted that for children with autism, the act of painting teaches “how to go through procedures.”

“Part of what I see is my mission, too, is a way to show kids on the Eastern Shore that there is a path for them to do what I’m doing as a job in our area,” Reynolds said.