| | Published August 18th, 2021
| New mural celebrating diversity unveiled in Lafayette
| | | By Jennifer Wake |  | | The new mural located at the corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Oak Hill Road in Lafayette. Photo provided |
When Lamorinda resident Lara Dutto contacted Three Thirty Three Arts, she hoped to bring a public mural to Lafayette that felt welcoming to all cultures and celebrated diversity. After over a year of hard work, from the initial design phase, to securing funding, to gaining approval from the city of Lafayette and organizing the installation, the Walnut Creek-based organization's artists and 13 volunteers helped bring the mural - located at the corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Oak Hill Road - to fruition.
"The mission of our organization is to bring people together to create public artworks for the benefit of a community," said Three Thirty Three Arts COO Tari Loring. "The artwork is a byproduct of the collaboration between many different people of various races and ages coming together in a unique way to create the art." The mural installation spanned 3.5 days to complete. On the first day, an artist from Three Thirty Three Arts painted the black outlines of the artwork. Over the following two days, two of its artists led the group of volunteers consisting of teens and young adults who helped fill in the colors and details. Dutto worked alongside the Three Thirty Three Arts team throughout the process and joined in to help paint as well, said Loring.
The result is a vibrant piece of art titled?"Unity in Diversity" that includes a dragon, panther, Monarch butterflies, and tropical flowers. In addition to the artwork, Loring said the entire building wall was repainted and some of the bushes were replaced with new drought tolerant plants.
Special thanks to Three Thirty Three Arts lead artists Pancho Pescador, Denis Dukhvalov, Callan Romero, as well as the 13 volunteers, Diamond Construction, Village Associates Real Estate, First Republic Bank, Lamorinda Arts, the 33 individual donors from the GoFundMe campaign, the city of Lafayette, Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, and Dreyer's (in-kind donation of ice cream for the mural celebration event).
In the coming weeks Three Thirty Three Arts will be installing a plaque on the mural wall. "We're also currently editing video footage of the mural installation process that will be shared at www.333arts.org and social media accounts," Loring said.
"I think we successfully accomplished the mission with this mural in Lafayette," said Loring, "and we look forward to more collaborations in the community!" |
 | | An army of artistic volunteers work on new Lafayette mural. Photo provided | | | | | | | | | | | |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA