Update on the Olympia-Rafah Mural Project!

Exciting work continues on the Olympia-Rafah Mural Project!

On the north side of the Labor Temple building at State and Capitol, we will affirm the sister-city connection between Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Palestine. The mural will examine Olympia’s “hidden histories” and explore links between our local past and global struggles for social economic justice. Labor history, the dispossession of Native Americans from their land, and current immigration and deportation struggles link us to events which have shaped the history of Rafah. Through art, we seek to understand our own past and present participation in colonialism and occupation.

Four “R’s” frame our design and image selection: relationships, return, resistance, and reconciliation. We celebrate and seek to strengthen the human connections between our communities; affirm the right of return for the Palestinian diaspora; acknowledge the daily acts of resistance to oppression; and express our heartfelt hope for reconciliation.

Central to our mural design is a large olive tree featuring tile leaves painted by local individuals to reflect their visions of peace and justice. Several hundred tiles have been painted and fired, with further workshops and open studios planned to work with artists, students, and organizations on mural design. Two artists from the Rafah Artists’ Association are helping to design scenes from Palestine and hope to join us during the painting. Between the branches, we are asking local groups to paint their social justice visions onto canvas fabric, which will be applied to the wall along with the tile leaves.

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The Olympia-Rafah Mural Project Arts Walk Celebration - Tile Painting and Performance!

Friday, April 25, 2008, 5-9pm
Saturday, April 26, 2008, 12-4pm
Alley next to 211 4th Avenue East, Olympia, WA

Come and paint a tile that will be permanently displayed in the Olympia-Rafah Mural on the Olympia Labor Temple building. Add your voice for peace, in the form of a painted ceramic olive leaf, which will be one of many leaves of a giant painted olive tree. Visually express solidarity with our sister city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, and your desire for peace in the middle east — no experience necessary!

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The Olympia-Rafah Mural Project Design Work Party

Saturday, March 8, 2008 - 1:00pm - 4:00pm - The Olympia Center, Room 200 - 222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia

Bring ideas, designs, drawings, photographs to collaborate on a mural composition. We will visually develop these themes: Resistance, Reconciliation, Return, and Relationships, within the context of our mural mission:

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Up Against the Wall: From Palestine to Mexico

Up Against the Wall Presentation: Friday, January 25, 2008 - 7:00pm - Parish Hall, St. John’s Episcopal Church - 114 20th Ave SE, Olympia
Olympia-Rafah Mural Project workshops: Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 10:00am - 4:30pm - The Olympia Center, Rooms 101 and 102 - 222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia

On Friday, January 25th, Carlos Marentes of Comité Pro-Amnistía General y Justicia Social in Seattle and Susan Greene of Break the Silence Mural Project in the San Francisco Bay Area will present Up Against the Wall—from Palestine to Mexico. Marentes and Greene will discuss connections between the walls constructed and proposed on the U.S.-Mexico border and those in Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza and, also, connections between the struggles of the oppressed populations impacted by these walls.

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The Olympia-Rafah Mural Project

Meeting and Walking Party

Thursday, July 12th
6:00pm
Room 200, The Olympia Community Center
222 Columbia St. NW

Artist and activist Susan Greene, who has led many mural projects in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, will be working with a group in Olympia to plan and paint a mural in downtown Olympia, commemorating the special relationship between our town and Rafah in the Gaza Strip. All are invited to brainstorm ideas for the mural, help put together a fund-raising plan, and scout for available wall space as we walk through downtown following the meeting!