W


ith camera in hand, a Myers Park resident settled in with her lawn chair to watch internationally


acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey and his Obey Giant team create a colorful 1,300-square-foot mural on the Wellesley Avenue side of the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement. Inspired by Queens’ motto, “not to be served, but to serve,” the stunning mural, titled Embrace Justice, conveys a message of hope through creativity, innovation, integrity and respect. In celebration of the mural installation, which took less than two on-site days to complete, Arts at Queens hosted, “A Conversation with Shepard Fairey,” moderated by Mike Wirth, M.F.A., associate professor in the art, design and music department. Tree art students served as panelists.


“I love it when people think the end result is


impressive, but there are always multiple layers to the art I’m doing on any platform but especially the public regard,” Fairey said to the audience of more than 500. “When you break down the individual parts, you see that they’re all achievable. I’m not just talking about people executing a mural, but people applying that same idea to any problem in society they want to tackle.” “When the Gambrell Foundation made a lead gift to name our new fine arts center, they were thoughtful about naming it the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement, charging us to use creativity and the arts to get students out of their comfort zones and right into the challenges of the Charlotte community,” said President Dan Lugo. “Te fact that he [Fairey]


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