BELCHERTOWN – After planning the project over the summer, the Belchertown Justice Collaborative (BJC) is working with a local artist to put together a mural celebrating LGBTQ+ pride on an electrical box across from Town Hall.

Tess Mathewson, a member of the BJC, said the group initially formed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May of 2020 after she reached out to her friend, McKenna Troy because Mathewson said she felt she was not the right person to take the lead with the BJC because she was white.

“The Belchertown Justice Collaborative is a youth led and organized grassroots social justice organization. We formed in May of 2020 in response to all of the racial violence and police brutality against Black people that was happening at the time and is still happening, specifically all of the global protests and solidarity events around George Floyd’s murder,” she said.

Before getting to work on the mural, Mathewson said the BJC applied for a grant.

“Last winter the Belchertown Justice Collaborative applied for a Belchertown Cultural Council grant to put in some electrical box murals, and we wanted it to be around the theme of celebrating and supporting LGBTQ+ pride in Belchertown, but we wanted it to be specific to our town and really engage the community, so we wanted to mix it together with cultural and community pride to create the design,” she said.

Overall, Mathewson said the project will cost about $1,000 with half the funding coming from a grant the BJC received from the Belchertown Cultural Council.

While the BJC wanted to put the mural together in June during Pride month, Mathewson said they did not have enough designs before participating in a Food Truck Friday event in June.

“We did have some trouble getting designs because it was hard to not get out into the community and talk to people during COVID [-19]. The Belchertown Cultural Council had a great idea to have us come to one of their Food Truck Friday events over the summer. We brought a bunch of art supplies and set up a tent, it was really popular, after that event we had over 40 designs,” she said.

Mathewson said the BJC had to narrow the art down to two finalists.

“We thought we would have people vote on social media, but first as a group the Belchertown Justice Collaborative selected some finalists. There was a lot of art that was really amazing but would not have transferred well to a 3D mural,” she said.
While the BJC decided on the first two pieces of art for the first mural, Mathewson said the community will have the opportunity to vote on future designs.

“Our plan is to take all the designs we received and put that in an online ‘zine [magazine] and release that hopefully over the winter to get people excited about this box and maybe future boxes as well,” she said.

Because the electrical box mural is located in Belchertown’s historic district, Mathewson said the Historic District Bylaw Commission requested that the design would fit in the historic district so the BJC selected the two designs without input from the community.

Althea Keaton, the artist painting the mural and formal Belchertown resident, discussed their process in tackling a three-dimensional object.

“I am thinking about it in three dimensions, thinking about what goes on which side, making sure you have something of interest on each side because it is going to be viewed from every possible angle. I did my initial drawing, planning it to be longer rather than taller,” they said. “When I actually approach the thing, I will be drawing on it with charcoal before committing to paint.”

Keaton added they would be trying to finish the mural as quickly as possible, weather permitting.

“I am aiming for a week, and it might be prolonged if the weather gets bad, but as long as the weather is good, I will be here every day,” they said.

Keaton indicated that the mural would be different from their more personal artwork.

“In my personal artwork I do very small and not a lot of color with very fine details. For something like this I want it big, I want it bold with bright colors so people can see it from everywhere,” they said.

Mathewson said she is looking forward to the community response to the mural.

“We are really excited to see the response to this mural because we have been putting it out there and telling people, but sometime people do not realize it is happening until it is happening, but it is amazing,” she said.

Mathewson also discussed the origins of the BJC and said one of its first major events was hosting a vigil in June of 2020.

“We got to work connecting with the community right away. We talked to the Belchertown Cultural Council, we talked to the town administrator, we met with the chief of police, we spoke to the Select Board and we ended up organizing a vigil on June 25 of 2020. We had a permit, we had town sponsors, the Cultural Council sponsored us and the Belchertown Community Alliance, a nonprofit in town, sponsored us and it was really amazing,” she said.

Mathewson said the vigil was an important moment for the community.

“It was a moment for the community to come together and listen to the racism people of color in Belchertown have experience and a moment for people to say I am ready to take action. It was an amazing day and our group felt very supported,” she said.

Since the initial vigil, the BJC has organized a variety of educational events, including movie showings, scavenger hunts and study guides for different age groups about topics such as Native American history.

Mathewson added that the support from the community has been overwhelming.

“We were overwhelmed by all the positive community feedback and engagement we received last summer. We did a fundraiser where we sold shirts with our organization’s logo on it, which allowed us to raise money for this project as well as the movie night,” she said.