Please make a generous donation to help Pierre Nagley with his mural “Everyone is Welcome" This project is being fiscally sponsored by the Yellow Sprjngs Arts Council and is fully tax deductible. What follows is Pierre's overview of the mural project. Help Pierre and YSAC to accomplish this goal!

“Everyone is Welcome" will rise on the north-facing wall of Peach's Grill, beside the bike path. It is the first wall that greets anyone entering the village from the south, a literal threshold into Yellow Springs. The composition is built from four large panels separated by narrow vertical bands, and each panel carries its own theme.

The Past. Historic people, places, and ideas that made Yellow Springs what it is today. To shape this panel faithfully, I will draw on the knowledge of local history experts.

The Present. The issues, challenges, and people that villagers feel represent who they are right now.

The Future. The village's ideal vision of itself, imagined by the people who live here.

The Scroll. A letter in the form of an unfurling scroll, titled "Everyone is Welcome," carrying a commissioned poem that gives voice to the spirit of the village.

This mural will give the people of Yellow Springs a permanent, public work of art that reflects who the village is (past, present, and future), created with the community's own input and made to welcome every resident and visitor who passes it. The piece is a mural in four parts, tracing the village across time through its symbols, historic, present, and future, and closing with a poem to everyone about the spirit of Yellow Springs.

The mural's content will be shaped by the community itself. A survey will go out to fifty residents, with more voices welcome, inviting them to name the people, places, and symbols they feel capture Yellow Springs today. The artist, a longtime resident who knows the village well, will read every response and draw on them as he develops the imagery for the wall. To imagine the future panel, he will host a future visioning session, a relaxed gathering over coffee and snacks, where residents are invited to talk together about the Yellow Springs they hope to see. Because he has been part of this community for years, he will work to ensure that the people in the room, and the faces and stories that ultimately reach the wall, reflect the full diversity of the village across age, income, and background.

Woven throughout the mural, I want to include sign language and figures in wheelchairs, so that no one searches the wall and fails to find themselves in it. The whole work will be bright and celebratory, edged with just enough seriousness to be felt: the village's food culture, its music scene, its love of the arts, faces of every color, and the threads that tie this small place to the wider world.

Outcome Measurement:

The project's success will be measured through both participation and public response, with results recorded for the Final Report.

Participation will be tracked through the community input process: the number of survey responses received, with a goal of at least fifty, and the number of residents who attend the future visioning session.
Completion will be measured by whether the mural is finished and installed on schedule and by holding a public unveiling, with attendance recorded. The process and finished work will be documented in photographs.
Public and educational response will be measured through coverage in local media such as the Yellow Springs News and through a brief feedback survey gathered at the unveiling, asking residents whether the mural reflects the identity and values of the village. Interpretive signage explaining the four panels will give visitors the historical and cultural context behind the imagery, extending the mural's educational value beyond the painting itself.

Together, these measures will show whether the project met its central goals: engaging a broad cross-section of the community in shaping the work, completing and presenting the mural publicly, and creating a lasting, inclusive landmark that residents recognize as a reflection of who Yellow Springs is.

Everyone Is Welcome Mural

by Artist Pierre Nagley