As work continues on the 5th Avenue and Maple Street sidewalk mural project the community is invited to a public paint day on Friday, November 12. In a “paint by number” style activity, no artistic skills are required to contribute to the mural meant to connect the Main Street and 7th Avenue business districts. The public may sign up for 30-minute slots to fill in colors along the Hendo Bee Line sidewalk mural. Volunteers and students from Hendersonville High School’s art classes will guide the public in simple painting in this participatory community event.
Time slots are available from 2pm – 4:30pm on Friday, November 12. Groups of up to 4-5 people can work on an area together. Anyone interested can sign up at https://signup.com/go/GRjNSco.
Volunteers, including several students, have been dedicating their weekends since October to complete the mural project funded by an AARP Community Challenge grant, designed for quick action and community activation. There are three total murals to be completed. “Bear Crossing” and “Hendo” by Diamond Cash, and the “Hendo Bee Line” by Elizabeth Queen.
“This project has brought a lot of interest and involvement in the community,” said Jamie Carpenter, downtown manager for the City of Hendersonville. “Lead artists, Diamond Cash and Elizabeth Queen have dedicated long hours, pulling in friends, family, and the entire community together to make something very eye-catching and thoughtful for the corridor that connects Main Street and 7th Avenue.”
“The Hendo Beeline” is a collaboration between local artists Elizabeth and David Queen and this community and will be on Maple Street from 5th Avenue to the Historic Depot. “This mural concept draws heavily on the project’s mission to weave the many threads of Hendersonville into its making,” said Elizabeth Queen. “It will be a honey-combed ‘yellow brick road,’ through which pedestrians of all ages can hop, skip, meander through an illustrative border garden made up of native pollinators. The pathway salutes our status as a Bee City USA and the recent For the Good of the Hive Mural downtown. Fusing our past with our present, there are links to our master gardeners, quilt makers, gem mines and more. Most importantly, it celebrates the different stages of our lives and our community as it explores diversity and the importance of sustainable interactions between man, the community and nature….especially pollinators.” As part of the making of The Hendo Beeline, Queen has invited local artists from ages 3 to over 70 to contribute.
About Elizabeth and David Queen:
While she enjoys making art (not to mention beekeeping and organic gardening), Elizabeth Queen’s passion is collaborative public art that includes elements of community service. An example of her “choreography and direction” of this type of collective work is Project Origami – a collaboration lead by Elizabeth and International Artist Yuri Tsuzuki, and involved the Nippon Center Foundation, students from Christ Church Episcopal School and the SC Governors School and a broad swath of the Upstate SC community. “Collaborative public art is not only a way to give back to the places that influence who we are, but the ripple effect is unending. Imagine how excited someone will be to be able to “meet someone at the Beeline” and show a friend or passerby, “that’s me. I helped make this!” Inspiring, empowering, affirming for individuals young and old,” says Queen.
David Queen is a Scottish metal sculptor who began his engineering career working with metals in the energy industry. His contemporary sculpture draws on his knowledge of materials properties, world travels, life experience and his understanding of the influence of Man on Nature and vice versa. Most recently, David was featured in an international arts show sponsored by the Gallery @ Flatrock along with Jose Bayro C. and Robert T. Smith. David’s fusion of this experience with his love of history, poetry, and science, results in authentic observation about the state of the world today and where we might take it from here and is reflected in his sculptures.
About the AARP Community Challenge Grant:
The Community Challenge funds innovative projects that inspire change in areas such as transportation, public spaces, housing, diversity and inclusion, civic engagement, coronavirus recovery and more.
To learn more about the work being funded by the AARP Community Challenge across the nation – including all 244 granted projects this year, visit aarp.org/CommunityChallenge. You can also view an interactive map of all Community Challenge projects and AARP’s livable communities work at aarp.org/livable.
About the Friends of Downtown Hendersonville:
The Friends of Downtown Hendersonville exist to identify, preserve and enhance the key factors that contribute to the authentic small town urban character of historic downtown Hendersonville. The Friends and City of Hendersonville have been building connections between the Main Street and 7th Avenue districts launched the Hendersonville Farmers Market in 2020 on Maple Street. At the end of 2021 and early 2022, the 7th Avenue Streetscape project will begin a $1.4 million investment into pedestrian and stormwater infrastructure and landscaping in the business district.
For more information, visit downtownhendersonville.org.
