Photographic mural portrays cultural, ethnic groups in Walla Walla

A photographic mural documenting the heritage of Walla Walla is in the works. Titled “Windows on the Past,” it will visually represent the histories of different cultural and ethnic groups in Walla Walla.

Developed through collaboration between the Critical and Alternative Voices (CAV) classes at Whitman and ArtWalla, a community non-profit organization dedicated to the arts, the mural will be constructed on the Odd Fellows Temple façade in Heritage Park (on Main Street between Pete’s Ski Shop and La Colombina).

“I don’t think that there’s a sense of Walla Walla’s history coming on to campus. At the same time, there are markers of that history that are literally on campus,” said Julia Davis, ArtWalla research coordinator and CAV professor. She regards the mural as a kind of permanent contribution Whitman students are making to the Walla Walla community.

“It could be a really rich ‘town-gown’ project because CAV students would be doing the research that would generate the images and the history,” said Davis.

CAV students last year did archival research and interviewed members of the community to find photographs for the mural, as well as gather information to write the histories behind those images. Students will continue researching the history of various cultural and ethnic groups this year and their images and written narratives will also be featured on an interactive Web site.

Seniors and “Windows on the Past” interns Erik Andersen and Shae Healey both agreed that the most meaningful part of the research involves interviewing community members.
“[The project] allows the one-on-one connection with the community that’s sometimes really hard to get here, especially as a Whitman student,” said Healey. She also said that, for her, “Windows on the Past” offered an opportunity to see what “Walla Walla really has to offer,” in spite of students’ initial apprehensions about attending college in such a small town.
Andersen spoke of a specific interview with a descendant of the French-Canadian community in Walla Walla: “We got him telling stories for several hours fueled on some coffee and poring over this old map [of Lowden]. He sort of went through a blow-by-blow history of the battles that took place there between the French and the native peoples. His style of telling history was really dynamic.”

“The Walla Walla community has been psyched about this project,” said Davis. “There have been really good moments between Whitman students and the larger Walla Walla community, and in ways that are very direct and I think often poignant because it’s about a family’s history.”

Healey described one interview with a member of the Italian community: “He went from showing us photographs that applied to photographs of his newest granddaughter. He had a genuine interest in getting his story out there and knowing that it wouldn’t disappear. The enthusiasm just blew me away.”

A show based on Andersen and Healey’s work will open in the Stevens Gallery on Oct. 19. The show will feature some images that will also be incorporated in the mural itself.
Fund raising has proven to be a problem for the “Windows on the Past” project. The mural itself is projected to cost about $200,000. The images will be created through enamel on steel, an involved process that happens in Seattle. This will eliminate fading due to sun exposure, be graffiti-resistant and allow the mural to last “a good 100 years,” said Davis. In addition to the mural and interactive Web site, something is needed at the site to explain the images, and ArtWalla is thinking about a coffee table book.

“[It’s becoming] more and more projects and more and more money,” said Davis, who hopes to sell T-shirts with one of the images printed on them in order to help raise funds.

The goal for the mural is to be a “touchstone for further conversations about Walla Walla history and diversity in the city,” said Andersen. He hopes to involve local history teachers in further projects surrounding the heritage of the community.

Healey feels that this project stands out to her as one of the most important projects she’s done in her academic career. One thing that struck her this summer was finding a photograph of an old African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“It never would have occurred to me that Walla Walla once had a black population large enough to hold a church, and you can walk on 10th and you would never know that it was there.”