Title

Mural Welcomes Families to East Lake Street

Creator

Artists: Simone Tincher, Gala Ingram

Date

Date Of Creation: July 2nd-6th 2022
Date Of Documentation: November 5th 2025

Description

This mural was made initially for the sole purpose of a new building that City Mischief has on Lake Street. The mural was a way to create a welcoming presence of the agency. The agency says “The mural brightens the space and reflects the diversity and strengths of all the diverse cultures of the neighborhood. “The images are especially powerful for children to identify with, including those attending The Family Partnership’s Four” Directions Family Center.” (city mischief). Every single person and symbol on the mural had meaning behind it. First thing was they put some symbols and people to symbolize the first nations of people on the land we are on today. The symbols include a jingle dress dancer which symbolizes and honors Ojibwe medicine and space and even there being the Lakota star which represents their connection to the spirit world, wisdom, and the cycle of life. To honor Latino culture, it highlighted a women wearing a Latin skirt which had the colors of the Mexican flag on it followed by orange and yellow marigold flowers which in Latino culture represent a powerful symbol for Dia de los Muertos. Additionally, because the huge population of east Africans in Minneapolis they also implemented quite a lot of symbols including a butterfly the color of the Somali flag, an east African mother reading to her child, and some pink flowers called the king protea which is the national flower in Somalia. Because of the death of Geroge Floyd which elevated the Black Lives Matter movement, they added the Black Lives Matter fist to memorialize him, and the many other lives lost in not only Minneapolis but everywhere else as well. This whole mural had intent and was incredibly detailed, everything on there is not only for looks but is a representation of lake street Minneapolis.

Subject

The meaning behind this mural was a way to represent the community and residents of Lake Street. Minneapolis is known for its diverse culture and its strong community consisting of many backgrounds. Making this mural highlighted all the cultures and made it a community-based mural showing how everyone works together which highlighted Minneapolis rich culture. The mural was made with intent and highlighted many cultures through the many pieces of symbolism including flowers, butterflies, people and more. The mural was made to create a welcoming presence of city mischiefs new agency in Lake Street. The family partnership commissioned BIPOC artist collective to create this mural for the city mischief. This mural and many others in the area are a realization effort to transform this neighborhood by taking these spaces and painting this mural with symbolism of hope and resilience, especially after the murder of Geroge Floyd where you can see a black fist symbolizing him and the many other African Americans who were killed from police brutality. This mural highlights the many diverse cultures of Lake Street and was made with intent and detail. Every single part of that mural was not just to make it pretty or fill space, but each thing there had a meaning down to the colors. This was a yearlong project created by local artists with a message they wanted to send out in which they succeeded. This is also a way for residents of the area to feel valued and seen, which was the goal. Seeing someone that represents you makes you feel more welcome in the community, which was the goal. Their logo of the family's partnership, who commissioned this project symbolizes outreach and partnership. In conclusion, this project was made with intent and with comprehensive research in order it create this meaningful mural representing the neighborhood of Lake Street.

Rights

Rights: Artist, Simone Tincher & Gala Ingram
Researcher: Fili Gebriel

Source

Reich, Vikki. “Mural Welcomes Families to East Lake Street - the Family Partnership.” The Family Partnership, 13 Sept. 2021, www.thefamilypartnership.org/mural-welcomes-families-to-east-lake-street/.