Volunteers gathered on a chilly Saturday right as the sun slipped behind the clouds, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work painting layers of primer on the side of the Newark Homeless Outreach building.
The building, located on East Main Street in Newark, will soon be home to a new mural, a project done in collaboration with the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition, the Newark Homeless Outreach and Denison University student Mel Wienandt. Wienandt said the project aims to be a powerful statement of support for the marginalized communities in Newark.
The final piece, which will span approximately 800 square feet across the front and side of the Newark Homeless Outreach building, is scheduled to be unveiled on Saturday, May 3, 2025. The design features vibrant colors, quotes from the community, and a bold message.
“It will say ‘We will not be erased. We leave an imprint,’” Wienandt said. “The rest of the design is energetic and playful to give a positive and aesthetic feel to it.”
Wienandt was recommended for the project by Denison professor Ron Abram, who teaches in the university’s queer studies and visual arts programs. Wienandt’s commitment to activism and mental health awareness is often reflected in her work.
“Murals are a way to speak to identity and represent others,” Wienandt said. “And it’s an opportunity to leave my mark.”
The mural is a group effort, combining the stories, voices and labor of the community. The broader picture is designed to be made up of messages from local residents, which were submitted to the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition through an online form.
“It is going to be built from the words of this community,” said Avalee Carver, vice president of Newark Ohio Pride Coalition. “We want anybody who looks at this mural to look at it and feel seen and to feel like they are represented in their community.”
The idea for the mural began over a year ago as the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition began looking for ways to increase their visibility in the community.
The group partnered with Newark Homeless Outreach after both organizations received rejections from the Licking County commissioners to light up the Licking County Courthouse in honor of their respective communities.
On holidays and during events, it is typical for the Licking County Courthouse to be lit with relevant colors — reds and greens around Christmas, blue and yellow in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and red, white and blue for holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day — but Licking County commissioners have declined to light the courthouse ahead of Licking County’s annual Pride celebration or for Overdose Awareness Day in recent years.
Read more: Pride Festival returns to downtown Newark in early October
The collaboration between the two organizations highlights the overlap between their missions.
“Both our organizations experience levels of hatred and marginalization and are treated as outcasts,” Carver said. “The LGBTQ+ community experiences homelessness at a higher rate than a lot of other communities… we want to recognize that overlap.”
LGBTQ+ individuals are “highly overrepresented in the homeless population,” in part due to discrimination in housing, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. And according to a 2020 study conducted by the Williams Institute School of Law at UCLA, LGBTQ+ adults are “twice as likely as the general population to have experienced homelessness in their lifetime.”
Carver doesn’t expect that the message will be well received by everyone. As a preventative measure, the mural will be covered in an anti-graffiti coating.
“We are very aware that graffiti is very likely going to happen,” Carver said. “We have to become desensitized to the blowback that we get, but it has never stopped us.”
Ultimately, the mural represents a collective movement against hate.
“I love this community. I expect to be in it for the rest of my life,” Carver said. “It’s more important now than ever that our community makes it clear that they don’t stand for hatred.”
The Newark Ohio Pride Coalition will sponsor an unveiling party on May 3 at the Newark Homeless Outreach Center during their weekly hot meal handout. The organizations encourage the community to come together on the date in celebration.
“Art is supposed to spread awareness,” Carver said. “There’s nothing more exciting than doing art that has a purpose.”
Selah Griffin writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.