This weekend, downtown DC’s St. John’s Church will have local artists paint racial justice-themed murals on the plywood panels that were installed during the George Floyd protests. St. John’s is located on Black Lives Matter Plaza, and served as the backdrop for Donald Trump’s infamous bible photo op this June.
Artists will be painting the murals at the church this Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM. The public is invited to join a dedication prayer service beforehand, and to stop by throughout the day to watch the painters work. Attendees can also add art of their own by contributing messages of “hope, love, and inspiration” to prayer wall canvasses on the H Street side of the church.
St. John’s is partnering with the DowntownDC BID and the P.A.I.N.T.S. (Providing Artists with Inspiration in Non-Traditional Settings) Institute to create the murals. P.A.I.N.T.S. is a DC-based educational nonprofit that provides STEM and Arts programming for youth in underserved communities. Their team of muralists will create the art at St. John’s.
“These murals will give a creative, visual voice to our community that is wrestling with issues and concerns stemming from the pandemic, protests and the call for racial justice,” P.A.I.N.T.S. Executive Director John Chisholm said in a press release. “We are both humbled and excited to have this opportunity to showcase the emotions of the community and help further the needed healing process.”
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
