Brown’s Town comes alive with exciting murals

With bright and colourful murals, Brown’s Town, St Ann, has a new, refreshing look, thanks to the Ministry of Local Government’s Paint the City Beautification project and a team of talented artists from Art Evolution in Kingston.

Last October, St Ann North West Member of Parliament Krystal Lee announced that approximately $17 million will be spent on the beautification of Brown’s Town, including reconstruction of parking lots and sidewalks, painting and murals.

The murals have transformed the town centre from a drab-looking area to an exciting kaleidoscope that has residents talking.

“I don’t have a problem with it because it’s the beautification of the town,” said resident Alrick Denton, who spoke with The Gleaner on Wednesday. “It put a different look to the town, it should stand out for a long time to come. (It) is not a bad look,” he added.

The murals were painted in May and involved artists Sekani Daniel, Nakeha Shepherd, Shanelle Davis, and Lifechild, with Keithi Cunningham as project manager.

The murals are varied. The walls at the market and at the St Mark Anglican Church share faces of famous persons from St Ann, to cover the areas of music, sports, and others. These include Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Romain Virgo, Busy Signal, Ernie Smith, Deon Hemmings, Xavier Marshall, Devon Hodges, and Grace Jackson.

Across the road from the market, the walls of the St Mark Anglican Church have been transformed into a background of varied blues with a painting of the church building, a scene with trumpet players, and a waterfall forming part of the new look.

One wall paid tribute to Brown’s Town’s position as the education centre of St Ann, highlighting, through crests, the educational institutions. Messages such as ‘Welcome to Brown’s Town’, ‘Life is Beautiful’, ‘Wah gwaan Brown’s Town’, ‘Big up, bless up, nuff respect’ are also on the walls.

Artist Sekani Daniel said they were allowed a lot of creative freedom. He said the project was a memorable one.

“The only thing the client wanted was certain faces on the wall; other than that, we had creative freedom,” he pointed out.

“It was different from others; it was unique and the people’s reaction – it really excited them in a way I’ve never seen before. So, for me it was really the people that made this experience a wonderful one.”

Apart from beautifying the town, Daniel believes the murals will serve to uplift the spirits of residents and also motivate them.

He said art continues to be a metaphysical exercise for him, and gives him freedom.

Project manager Keithi Cunningham hailed the artists for their professionalism in creating the design and getting the work done within a month.

“We got the freedom to express ourselves so the design was done by the painters,” Cunningham said.

“We started with the heaven scene for the church wall, heavenly scene with the trumpets in the clouds. From the heaven scene, it goes to the church, then a sunset scene – we put back the church on the wall,” he explained, noting that a painting of the Anglican church is on the church wall.