Rider, Trenton Students Unveil Mural Promoting Diversity

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - Students from Rider University and Artworks — Trenton's downtown visual arts center — recently unveiled three murals at the University's Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

The murals were painted by local artists Leon Rainbow, Marlon Davila and David Gillespie, in collaboration with the students. The three murals represent the Rider community as a welcoming place for people of all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientation, religions and backgrounds, said the university.

"The symbolism in these murals represents the Rider community in broad ways. The whole university is reflected in this space," Pamela Pruitt, executive director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, said in a statement.

To prepare the murals, the students from Rider and Artworks participated in three online sessions on history, background, styles, techniques, designs and composition. The project was led senior artist Rainbow along with assistant artists Gillespie and Davila.

Rider freshmen Bridget Gum, Faith Weiser and senior Jerome Manning, along with three Trenton students - Vanessa Barragan-Luna, Sha’ni Parker and Hainslye Peralta- were part of the project.

The artists and students collaboratively sketched several renderings of the mural.

"We incorporated the students' feedback and concept sketches into final design," said Jesse Vincent, Artworks’ education and public project manager.

"Our focus was to include a variety of symbols and imagery viewers would recognize, but also allowing room for each viewer to connect and create their own personal meaning,” he said.

The first mural is located in the diversity center's main lobby. It features eight hands, illustrating a spectrum of diverse skin tones, positioned in a circle, supporting one another.

A quote from spiritual guru Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar is at the center of the circled hands, as butterflies and puzzle pieces accent the mural.

The second and largest mural is a rainbow gradient spanning the length of the wall, featuring a globe held up by two hands, a raised fist, puzzle pieces, butterflies and an icon of a person in a wheelchair wearing a cape with an equal sign overlaid on the wheels.

The final mural is at the Identity-Based Student Organizations Work Room and portrays civil rights activist Ruby Bridges. A quote from Bridges also adorns the mural.

Rider's new Center for Diversity and Inclusion opened in September. The Center provides support for 23 identity-based clubs and student organizations, promoting issues of inclusion in the Rider community.

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