Acclaimed Artists to Work With Local Students on “The Morgnec Gateway Mural”

Internationally acclaimed mural artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn return to Chestertown September 16–18 to lead a team of local middle school students, community members, and college students as they produce a mural behind the Tractor Supply Co. in Kent Plaza.

The Morgnec Gateway Mural project is a joint effort between SANDBOX (a Washington College initiative merging science and art), Washington College’s College Preparation Intervention Program, or CPIP (a yearlong program developed in partnership with the Bayside HOYAS and Kent County Public Schools), and RiverArts (Chestertown’s nonprofit arts organization).

Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn provide graphic punch in their large-scale murals.

Community members are welcome to observe the creative process Saturday, Sept. 17, starting at 10:00 a.m. After 3:00 p.m., the public is invited to participate hands-on in the art making. Sunday the 18th will be open to the public beginning at 11:00 a.m. and work will be ongoing until the mural is complete.

Unterhalter and Truhn originally met at Maryland Institute College of Art in 2001 and since 2011 have collaborated on public artwork driven by social engagement. A number of their projects have been centered in Baltimore, thanks to two PNC Transformative Grants. Their unique partnerships with communities have earned them residencies at The Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, and the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

The two were recently selected for the New York Department of Transportation’s 191st Tunnel Beautification Project and worked with Philadelphia’s Murals Arts Program to create “Summer Kaleidoscope,” a 400-foot-long floor mural and pop-up park. One of their recent works, a SANDBOX project, can be found on the northern exterior of the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus.