The Big Picture: Art, Equity & Engagement

Racial equity training extends beyond the classroom! Portland Means Progress conducted mural projects through employee volunteering with Portland Means Progress businesses. The mural projects featured art by local BIPOC artists and included DEI training with a local racial equity practitioner, Emmanuel Williams. 

We are grateful to the Portland Means Progress businesses who hosted the projects, the artists, the employees who volunteered, Emmanuel Williams, and our partners at Portland Street Art Alliance. 

Mural by Artist Alex Chiu at Cargo: 

My mural is inspired by the patterns of a Chinese Imperial Dragon robe of the 1700’s.  I was most drawn to this artwork as I looked through books about Chinese art history. At this stage in my life, I am trying to reclaim my Chinese heritage, and this mural gave me the opportunity to study the artwork of that heritage.  As a painter and muralist, I would like these cultural patterns to become my own.  I would like this legacy of work to live through me.   

Mural by artists Cleo & Kayin Davis at Rocsys:

Black American artists Kayin Talton Davis and Cleo Davis have crafted a captivating mural from an Afrofuturist lens. The genre of Afrofuturism examines the Black experience through a futuristic perspective and seeks to merge the African diaspora culture with science and technology. Drawing inspiration from local businesses, the artists incorporated elements such as green technology to symbolize Rocsys and agriculture to represent the neighboring business, Darigold, into their design. 

Mural by artist Daren Todd at Toast:

With shapes, colors and patterns drawn from the greater Pacific Northwest landscape as well as the architecture and vibe of Portland’s Northeast neighborhoods, this mural at Toast, inc. was designed to provide a vibrant backdrop to the company's home location. I designed the mural with movement and growth in mind.  It was interesting to watch over the course of the mural’s production how having creative input from so many people changed and evolved the mural's design into something organically different and beautiful. 

Mural by artist Victor Bizar Gómez at Nossa Familia:

Mexican-American illustrator Victor Bizar Gómez designed a mural that centers around the theme of farm-to-cup coffee. The scene includes young Latino farm workers harvesting cherries from a field of coffee plants and a young woman enjoying a cup of coffee in a Guatemalan coffee house. The mural design integrates Nossa Familia’s direct coffee trade model and deeply rooted relationships with coffee growers around the world.