Through creating an inter-disciplinary, interactive, multi-site public art project that will involve people locally, nationally and internationally, The Olympia-Rafah Mural Project will make visible on-going solidarity with all those struggling against oppression.

The mural aims to move from the local to the global by bringing people together across social justice movements. The images in the mural will articulate how the issues of oppression in Palestine and Israel connect to local and national issues.  The goal of the project is to use culture to increase the strength and visibility of a movement that will continue to work for social change in Palestine, the US and the world.

Current Stage of Project
We have currently finished Phase One of the mural and are getting ready to launch Phase Two.  Phase One included the painting of the trunk of a large ancient Olive tree that you see below, spanning approximately 100 feet.

During Phase Two we will build relationships with individuals and organizations across movements and communities locally, nationally and  internationally.  These relationships yield:

1)    Images that will go into the leaves of tree. The individual leaves will be between eight and ten feel so that the viewer will be able to see individual images.

2)    A new media component will give viewers an opportunity to interact with the project in ways that are unique to murals.  Along with a visual design the mural participants will submit audio tracks that will be accessible by cell phone, turning the street into a listening station. The viewer will be able to listen to poetry, music, interviews, etc. associated to different images in the mural.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geocaching technologies will be used to provide alternative walking tours, whereby for example, the viewer will be able to walk through downtown Olympia and view what they would see if they were walking down a street in Rafah, or viewing the wall on US/Mexico border, ec.  These locations would be layered upon each other, changing the way great distances are experienced.

We plan to finish the Olympia project by the summer and then will begin to plan a sister project in Rafah.  The Rafah mural will be structured similarly to the Olympia mural as it too will aim to bring people together across movements and locations in solidarity with Palestine and other movements for social justice.

We plan a vigorous Public Relations and outreach campaign so that this project has the best opportunity to reach as wide an audience as possible.  In addition we will be producing a documentary called: “A Tale of Two Cities, The Legacy of Rachel Corrie” (working title).