The Ruth Wilson Gilmore mural is built on and rooted in the community of New Haven, and that is made clear in even the smallest of details. For example, the flora and fauna depicted in the mural are all native to the city. The Endangered Species Mural Project, which is an initiative under the Center for Biological Diversity, helped support the mural to celebrate endangered plant species such as sandplain gerardia, small whorled pogonia, and Jesup’s milk-vetch. You can read more about the initiative here.

The mural was also imagined and created by members of the community every step of the way – from the designing process to the painting itself. For example, muralist Jess X. Snow “incorporated notes from multiple specialists and sources, as well as ideas — certain colors and birds, for example — acquired through a neighborhood feedback form.” Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn, the project manager for the mural said that they wanted the local residents to “have a stake in what is being created here.” Designing a mural, he explained, “is never about one artist or one individual, it’s about a community.”

Read more here.