The digital art exhibit on Spokane’s Black Lives Matter mural is raising awareness about COVID-19

From paintings and digital projections to poems and comics, artwork was projected onto Spokane’s mural Black Lives Matter on Monday evening as part of a campaign promoting the wellbeing of COVID-19 while celebrating the social movement.

The display was a collaboration between the Spokane-based Digital Art Residency Laboratory, nonprofit artist Terrain, and Black Lens, an independent publication focused on the Spokane black community, for Black Lens’s Create Health initiative.

Ginger Ewing, executive director of Terrain, said the goal of the campaign is to provide COVID-19 resources to communities disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.

“What better way to highlight the work around Create Health and these differences with a message that our lives matter?” She said.

The digital projection was created by Sarah Turner, the lab’s artist-in-residence, who spent part of the Monday night viewing the display from a laptop across the parking lot at 244 W. Main Ave. encode live.

The images, which were embedded in the Black Lives Matter mural on Monday evening, were produced by 10 artists for the Create Health campaign, Ewing said.

“What has come to fruition is the collaboration of several community organizations that have come together for a unique cause. For me it’s really nice and very powerful, ”she said. “The transformative power that art has to open us up to get someone else’s point of view, I think this is really strong evidence of that.”

For information on featured artists and future events, please visit createhealthspokane.com.

The Monday evening event drew other groups to attend.

NAACP Spokane members served refreshments. Meanwhile, activist group Spokane Community Against Racism displayed other messages – including “No More Stolen Sisters” – in nearby buildings separate from the “Creating Health” campaign, Ewing said.