Photo courtesy of Joe Schipani
Written by Jameca Patrick-Singleton
Joe Schipani moved to Flint almost 16 years ago and immediately fell in love with the city. Schipani, whose undergraduate studies were in theater design and graduate studies focused on public administration, is the executive director of the Flint Public Art Project. The Flint Public Art Project is the agency responsible for the murals all throughout the city that depict everything from hometown heroes, to civil rights activists, famous musicians and get out to vote messages.
The first mural went up in 2015, but it was in 2017 that these murals began to be used as a tool of activism. It was then that The Flint Public Art Project was approached by the art activist group called Indecline who wanted to come to Flint and help bring more recognition to the Flint Water Crisis. This action resulted in a mural called “Greeting From Flint”. This mural was followed by a series of positive message murals from other artivists that occurred around town after residents complained that the façade of the city was poorly depicted in the Netflix film “Flint Town”.
“In the film the nicer areas of the city were blurred out,” said Schipani. “They only showed parts of town with abandoned and blighted buildings.”
To address the outrage, Schipani and his team, armed with the assistance of both local and out of town artivist groups has since painted 210 murals throughout the city, with a goal for painting 50 more this year.
“We are taking back out narrative” he stated.
The murals that are brought to the community are not focused on one particular area. Instead they are scattered throughout the entire city.
“From a public health stand-point we are helping people by giving them something nice to look at, which is why we don’t just focus on downtown. We have murals in every ward. We want to inspire people.”
The mission of the Flint Public Art Project is to help grow and connect neighborhoods. It is with this mission in mind that the agency, in partnership with several other community organizations and neighborhood groups, including Flint Leverage Point Project, Flint Genesee Food Policy Council, Edible Flint, Local Grocer, Flint Fresh, Asberry Farms, What’s Up Downtown and more is planning two festivals this year. The first will be a week-long food and mural festival that will take place June 25, 2022- July 2, 2022 and will span across the corridor of Saginaw street from Russell to 12th with activities starting at the Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village and ending at the Golden Leaf. The second festival is being planned for October 2022 with the details still being worked out.
“We want Flint to be seen the way that residents see it: beautiful.”