PROJECT DESCRIPTION

After 50,000 brushstrokes; 2,500 gallons of paint; 9,000 artist hours; 5,000 community participants, and 10,000 volunteer hours, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC), Meg Saligman, and the Shreveport community triumphantly concluded their Artists & Communities residency by dedicating the nation's largest public art mural.

Meg Saligman is the year 2000 recipient of the Leeway Award for Excellence. Her prestigious mural career spans 12 years, and focuses on large-scale, exterior paintings. During her Artists & Communities residency, Saligman perfected a paint-by-numbers process that enabled community members to engage directly in the mural painting process. This resulted in the creation of a mural that is photo-realistic in quality.

"Once in a Millennium Moon," Saligman's gift to the city of Shreveport, stands as a prominent gateway into the city's downtown.Installed on the AT & T Building, the Mega Millennium Mural spans 12 stories, encompasses 30,000 square feet, and wraps around two walls. This monumental work of art has become the centerpiece of the city's skyline, visible from much-traveled Interstate 20 as well as from the air when arriving and departing from the local airport.

During the 12-month project, thousands of individuals, aged three months to 81 years, participated in the design, development, and production of the mural. In the first month of the residency alone, Saligman met with more than 78 groups to discuss their ideas. Individuals cited the the unity and diversity of Shreveport, its people, festivals, food, and natural beauty of the community as sources of pride. When asked to describe the most beautiful thing they had ever seen, a newborn baby was the nearly unanimous response. Additionally, community members contributed more than 250 family heirlooms for consideration as part of the design and Saligman took thousands of photographs of Shreveport's residents for possible inclusion in the mural.

Saligman engaged a diverse team to assist with the mural's production, including local artists Amy Ricke, Buddy West, and Patrick Marshall. Production artists included Quintin Johnson, Terry Coleman, Woodrow Evans, Eric Francis, Dr. Lisa Nicolletti, Ionna Panos, Sara Beth Starks, and Larissa Preston. Cesar Viveros-Herrera, who has worked with Saligman on previous projects in Philadelphia, headed this distinguished team. Members of the Pamoja Art Society, Shreveport's oldest African American Visual Artist Collective, and students from Centenary College, Southern University of Shreveport, and area high schools and art clubs also participated in the creative process.

No portion of the Shreveport community was left untouched during this Artists & Communities project. The mural is a testament to the spirit of community and collaboration that is a part of everyday life in Shreveport. "Once in A Millennium Moon" presents the heritage and future of Shreveport at the new millennium through its people, their treasured memories, and their hopes for the future.

Of the mural, Millennium Artist Meg Salesman said, "it is important to me that this mural project be huge, meaningful, beautiful and something fitting for a once in a thousand year event...I want[ed] the design to be for and from the community, while still being a singular artistic vision that attempts to say something new."