http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2013/dec/19/266270/

The Lawrence Community Shelter is putting on a Music for Murals benefit concert at Gaslight Gardens on Friday, Dec. 20, to raise money for the first large community mural that a couple of local artists are facilitating for shelter residents.

K.T. Walsh and Jennifer Glenn are in the process of designing a mural concept put together by ideas from many residents in the community shelter on trace paper. From left to right, the mural will capture three crucial stages these displaced individuals encounter as a result of homelessness:

The first panel shows the many negative stereotypes they face, highlighting addiction and alcoholism, two misconceptions that many people generalize for all homeless people.

“It’s a warped way of thinking,” K.T. Walsh says.

Residents included the true reasons for needing assistance at this time in their lives right beside these stereotypes including foreclosure on their homes, mental illness as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder, or not have quite enough to put down a deposit on a home or apartment, along with first month’s rent and utilities.

The second panel shows the shelter assistance from healthy food provided to employment options offered to help get them back on their feet. The average stay of a resident or family is 40 days. Only after committing to a case manager and mapping out their plan to

The third panel shows the progress leading to them to find new homes, jobs, and an overall happier and successful life following the shelter. The mural will bring joy whenever they see it, Walsh says.

“It lifts them up when things look bleak, and gets their minds off of their issues, and when they’re going to get that job,” Walsh says.

Jennifer Glenn will soon be sewing together canvas fabric and they will project the basic design onto the fabric for all the residents to participate in painting the 9-foot by 47-foot mural. Glenn is excited by the permanent positive feeling visual arts leaves in people’s lives.

“Everyone experiences visual arts in a different way, but it’s there forever,” Glenn says. “It’s a gut feeling that I can’t put literally.”

Amber Hansen, a bartender at Gaslight who has worked on a mural with Walsh in the past, planned the benefit concert, asking four musicians/band to play: Ardys Ramberg, Carey Scott, Invisible Public Library, and Street Level Uprising. Hansen says she is optimistic because Gaslight Gardens has thrown many successful benefits in this intimate setting.

“Most importantly, we’d like to raise money for the mural, but also awareness for the project,” Hansen says.

Classic folk singer Ardys Ramberg says she wishes she could donate far more than her music on Friday, as, she says, “artwork is important to our hearts and souls.”

“The place is cavernous,” Ramberg says. “We have to do what we can to make the world as beautiful as we can.”

The number of homeless families is increasing and we’re seeing that trend nationwide, says shelter director, Loring Henderson. Walsh wants to make a small mural on the door to the family area, now housing 35 kids, to give a more happy homey feel.

“Arts are an important break for kids and adults,” Walsh says, excited to start painting with all the residents. “We all just need to play and forget for a bit.”

While they’ve received a grant from the cultural arts commission through the Percolator, the shelter can always use more fabric for quilting, and art supplies. Proceeds from Friday night’s benefit concert go directly to the first mural project, in hopes of continuing to make murals throughout the rest of the building. The concert starts at 7 p.m.

Anyone can donate here, if they can’t make the benefit.

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