CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Contemporary artist Shepard Fairey is putting the finishing touches on a social-justice-themed mural on the campus of the Queen's University of Charlotte this week.
The mural, titled "Embrace Justice," appears on the Wellesley Avenue side of the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement.
"We could not be more pleased that this magnificent and important work is coming to the right place at the right time," Queens University President Dan Lugo said. "When the Gambrell Foundation made a lead gift to name our new fine arts center, they were thoughtful about naming the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement, charging us to use creativity and the arts to get students out of their comfort zones and right into the challenges of the Charlotte community."
President Lugo said the artwork conveys the university's commitment to convening sincere civic and cultural dialogue in our community and magnifies its motto 'not to be served, but to serve.'
"This mural is a call to action of the hard work we still have to do to unify our communities," mural artist and Queen University Professor Mike Wirth said. "I'm thankful that our students get to experience art and graphic design as activism in a center dedicated to creative civic engagement right here on their campus."
Fairey's connection to the university runs deep, as his mother Charlotte Fairey and sister McRae (Fairey) Oyeossi are Queen's alums.
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