Seeds of Hope Mural Unveiling for Mental Health Awareness
NAMI Coastal Virginia, the Season for Nonviolence Collective (citizen group) and the ViBe Creative District have partnered to engage the local community in a project focused on Mental Health Awareness to remove the stigma of mental illness and create a community space of healing and hope.
Drawing inspiration from the Alfred Tennyson quote, “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever,” local artist Erika Hitchcock of StoneWear Ceramics has created a flower mural that is being constructed and painted with the assistance of local students and artists.
During the Season for Nonviolence (now through April 4), local students at the Virginia Beach Technical School are constructing two wooden benches with planters to create a safe place to sit in the garden and other student leaders are hosting kindness rock painting sessions to spread messages of hope and healing throughout the garden.
This collective community art project will be unveiled in ViBe’s Mediterranean Parklet and Butterfly Garden located on Mediterranean Ave between 19th and 18th Streets — between Java Surf and Seaside Harbor– on #secondsaturday, May 8th at noon. The public is welcome to come hear the mural artist offer brief remarks or can show up anytime after to see the mural, pick up seeds leave or take a painted kindness rock.