At Shelby Commons, local history and culture have been brought to life across two sides of a new 4-story building that Woda Cooper Companies, Inc. (Woda Cooper) recently co-developed with Project for Pride in Living (PPL) in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. The murals celebrate the area’s predominant history as a bustling, vibrant Black neighborhood. They feature iconic locals like elder Bill Cottman, a fatherly figure who has supported generations of youth growing up in the neighborhood, musicians, children, plus street maps, a massive tree, descriptive phrases, and other artistic details including a series of Adinkra signifiers widely referenced by the African diaspora.
Art was part of the vision for the 46-unit Shelby Commons affordable housing community from early in its inception, said Parker Zee, Woda Cooper’s VP-Development. Zee met with members of the North Loop Neighborhood Association to gather the community’s input and ideas early in the planning process. “They suggested using art to add interest to the design of the building, and we jumped on the idea,” Zee said.
To help facilitate this, Woda Cooper turned to Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA). Now entering its 30th year, JXTA is a non-profit youth art and design education center, gallery, retail shop, and artists’ studio space in North Minneapolis. Juxtaposition Arts, known for engaging the community and employing young creative urban artists, suggested Jordan Hamilton as the artist for this project. Along with having been a lead instructor in JXTA’s studio art programs, Hamilton is a celebrated Minneapolis mural artist whose artwork is primarily found in the Twin Cities but also in other cities as far away as Abu Dhabi.
To shape the Shelby Commons artwork designs, JXTA organized a community engagement dinner where Hamilton shared his work and facilitated conversation and gathered input from neighboring organizations. Hamilton reviewed the development plan and building design, and he interviewed local historians to research how the neighborhood evolved over the years. Hamilton then poured through locally significant books such as Sights, Sounds and Soul: Twin Cities Through the Lens of Charles Chamblis. The book was compiled and authored by Davu Seru and features hundreds of photographs depicting local African American culture during the 1970s and 1980s.
Over several months, Hamilton and Juxtaposition Arts shared ideas and sketches with Woda Cooper and PPL, and established a team, including four other artists, to render the project, starting with chalk sketches and, finally, using latex based paint that was applied with brushes. Hamilton selected muted earth tones to match the building’s cement and brick walls. It took about five weeks to complete the artwork.
The largest mural is set on a 40’ by 40’ wall with multiple windows that faces the community’s playground, picnic area, and outdoor parking spaces. The large mural features a baby cradled by Cottman, a young artist dressed in modern 1970s-inspired clothing, and a famous local instrumentalist named Douglas R. Ewart who is playing a bamboo flute.
Hamilton also incorporated modified Adinkra symbols that represent known African messages about the wisdom of pulling from the past to move into the future, peace and tranquility, and a prayer for long-life and prosperity.
A second, smaller mural is located near the front entrance of the building. This mural features a large tree with roots extending into a map that gives a current snapshot of the North Loop and nearby areas of Minneapolis. The meshing of the map and tree roots, explains Hamilton, represents the parallel between a strong neighborhood foundation and a strong human need for housing and a location in which to set roots.
Hamilton admits that designing a mural on a 4-story apartment building was a little bit of a challenge. “I don’t think I’ve done a wall at this scale with so many windows – I had to take that into consideration with the design and work in columns and rows,” he said. “To get (the drawing) up to scale, I relied on a lot of eyeballing and free handing. But on the positive side, the wall had a natural grid because of the cement sections and windows, and those references gave me something to work from.”
Hamilton’s own roots have shaped his skills and sensitivities as a muralist, he says. His parents were local artists with a wide circle of artist friends. They exposed him to many forms of art and design including graffiti which drew his interest as a teenager. He eventually joined a community mural program where he learned how to collaborate on large scale street art projects. “I haven’t stopped since,” Jordan says.
Shelby Commons is Woda Cooper’s first development in Minnesota and the culmination of a cooperative, collaborative effort to create housing that addresses important housing needs for Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood. It reflects local insights offered by partner, PPL, along with valuable support from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, as well as financial support from Merchants Capital, Security Bank & Trust, and Huntington National Bank.
At the property’s recent ribbon-cutting ceremony, Hamilton says he was grateful to hear guests express excitement and kind words about the murals. Several residents moving into Shelby Commons have also told Hamilton how proud they are to see the art on their building. “It is great to see more accessible housing and I’m grateful that I got to be part of this project,” he said.
