New mural graces side of Neighborhood Family Practice at Ridge & Denison
by Frank Barnett

(Plain Press, July 2010) At a June 11th community unveiling of a new 72 foot mural on the side of Neighborhood Family Practice at Ridge and Denison, artists and youths who created the mural as part of the Mural Our Neighborhood program joined in the celebration along with Ward 15 City Council Representative Matt Zone, neighborhood residents and staff members from Dave’s Supermarket, Neighborhood Family Practice and the Bureau of Cultural Arts of the City of Cleveland.

It’s hard for words or even photographs to do justice to the dynamic new mural along the side of Neighborhood Family Practice at Ridge and Denison, the southern edge of the Stockyards neighborhood. It was designed by Dan Whitely and his assistant Pam Griffith and executed by 13 students from the City of Cleveland’s Mural My Neighborhood program, which operates out of both the Cudell Fine Arts Center and Glenville Recreation Center. The program will complete 3 other murals this summer (including another west side one along Puritas.)

Titled “Our Path, Our Community, Our Wellness”, the bright colors and striking images really help brighten a rather drab retail area. At 72 feet long, it is the largest yet of the 14 murals undertaken since the program started in 2005. Careful observation from left to right shows it flows seamlessly through the four seasons. It illustrates the rich history of the area where, in the late-19th/early 20th centuries, immigrants were first drawn to settle, working on the railroads, the Union Stockyards on West 65th, and the Joseph & Feiss Garment Company at West 53rd and Walworth, which in the 1920s made Cleveland one of the country’s leading clothing manufacturers. All of these are depicted in the mural, along with a community garden, Brookside Park and even the skyline of downtown Cleveland in the distance.

Speakers at the June 11 unveiling of the mural included representatives of Neighborhood Family Practice and Dave’s Supermercado, which occupy the building, and the Stockyard Redevelopment Organization. It also included Chris Luciani, the ever-so-animated manager of the Cleveland Bureau of Cultural Arts that runs the Mural My Neighborhood program, who clearly appreciates how the cigarette tax keeps his art program going in tough economic times.

“All you smokers, I love you!” said Luciani.

“When you put up murals, graffiti seems to go away,” said Ward 15 Councilman Matt Zone. “We always had a problem at West 53rd and Lorain, and they put up a mural and there isn’t any graffiti. The bike path to Edgewater Park at the base of West 65th, that tunnel used to get graffiti’d all the time. We put up a mural, and no graffiti.”

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