"How's it Growing, Sunshine?" Community Mural

UPDATE!! We have secured funding from our new Hill St Mural Sponsor, Biddeford Savings Bank, as well as other in-kind donations....which drops our ask to $1688! We are almost there!!

Who doesn’t love a community art project? What about a live painting event during a community music festival? These two awesome things will be combined to create the “How’s It Growing, Sunshine?” Hill Street Mural on August 20th, 2022, during Biddeford, Maine’s River Jam festival!

The “How’s it growing, Sunshine?” mural is the next people's art project by Forging Commons, a community art producer that kindles people’s creative spirit through making meaningful, public-facing artwork- made by the people, for the people.

The "How's it Growing, Sunshine?" mural represents positive change and growth for all Biddeford residents through the representation of a diverse ecosystem where all elements contribute to the greater health of the community.

Why? Because, in diversity, we have strength. We all contribute to creating community and when we recognize our interdependence, recognize that we all have something to offer, our community and each other benefits.

The imagery for the mural is based on artwork created by Biddeford teens from Apex Youth Connection with the guidance of Forging Commons director Rebecca Cote. It will depict a bright, stylized landscape indicative of our region including the Atlantic Ocean, the Saco River and our forests, flora and fauna that make this area so ecologically rich.

The phrase, “How’s It Growing, Sunshine?” involks us to ask ourselves, “how are we growing?” and tops it off with a sweet referral to ‘Sunshine’ because we all have that light within us. The phrase and imagery will span the 3’x70 ‘concrete wall at the bottom of Hill St. where it meets Main St. just above Mechanics Park, the site of Biddeford’s River Jam Festival.

Biddeford youth will help Forging Commons with the wall repair and be engaged in the mural creation process throughout July and August 2022. A culminating community engagement painting event will take place during Biddeford’s highly attended River Jam Festival on August 20, 2022. All River Jam participants will be invited to interact with the process by painting sections of the mural in a paint by numbers format.

Your valuable donations to the “How’s It Growing, Sunshine? Community mural project are tax-deductible thanks to the fiscal sponsorship of Heart of Biddeford. Funds will be used to cover the cost of wall repair, youth stipends, art direction, digital expertise, marketing, event preparation and, of course, paint and materials. We thank you for contributing to creating a bright, colorful, community-inspired public art piece for the people of Biddeford, Maine.