Sponsored By:

Love Can Build Anything"

HURRICANE MURAL PROJECT

After Hurricane Andrew swept away their homes, some children in Dade County were so devastated that they couldn't talk about it. So, they painted! One child painted a picture of the roof of a house falling down, with pets still inside the rubble. "I was so glad that my pets were okay!" reads the inscription to the drawing.

The "Love Can Build Anything" 48 foot movable mural (1992) is a collaboration among forty-five children (ages 12-14) who were traumatized by Hurricane Andrew. The mural visually depicts what the children heard, saw and felt before, during and after the Hurricane.

Created for the reopening of Metrozoo after the Hurricane, this mural has become a symbol of healing and hope. One participants' mother wrote a letter saying, "...it is my observation, in comparing the recovery of my son Eran, who participated in the mural project, with that of his twin, who did not, Eran is much farther along in overcoming the trauma caused by the storm than either his twin or his older brother. I feel that by expressing pictorially what he was very reluctant to talk about, Eran and the other art students gave a face to the faceless storm, identified their fears, and thus confronted them and dealt with them much more effectively..."

The mural served as a backdrop for a nationally televised Presidential Town Meeting in Homestead, FL on Labor Day, 1993. Attended by President and Mrs. Clinton, Labor Secretary Robert Reich and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, the Town Meeting was featured in its entirety on both C-Span channels and was highlighted on CNN and the network news programs. Both the President and Mrs. Clinton added their support for this project by signing the mural as a personal commitment to volunteerism.

The mural toured the Miami Youth Museum, Miami Museum of Science, the Miami-Dade Library system, Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale, the Town and County Mall, South Dade, FL., and the National Hurricane Center in Dade County. The Points of Light Foundation displayed the mural at its Heroes of the Hurricane event attended by Lt. Governor Buddy McKay, Insurance Commissioner Crawford, and actor Jimmy Smits. Each Hurricane season, the mural is displayed at the National Hurricane Center located in South Miami.

A beautiful, inspirational song was written by performing artist Lanny Smith to accompany the visual component of this mural and whenever a natural disaster occurs in different parts of the country, this song goes out over the airwaves as a message of support from the people in South Florida. The mural has also been offered to help disaster victims cope with their stress.

For additional information about this project, please contact us at artcfca@bellsouth.net.