Story & photos
by Barbara Park
On a seasonable and chilly December Sunday, Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) members and their mentors dedicated their recently completed stairway mural at 77 Main Street in Norwich. “Peacock Alley” features a beautiful peacock designed by New London artist Gordon Arzu that stretches the height of the forty-five stairs that connect Water Street to Main Street.
The Norwich Community Development Corporation (NCDC) gave the go-ahead for JYSEP to paint the mural, a project that took almost three months. JYSEP members including Jennifer Moreria, Claire Val-Files, Z’Anna Phillips, and Ivana Etienne, spent four weekends painting the initial base of white paint, and then laid in areas that are one color. The finished work includes bright and dark blues, vivid green, and orange. Detail work was completed by Gordon Arzu and Stephanie Fielding, secretary of the NCDC Board of Directors and an “animator” of the JYSEP Sandy Lane group, which has membership for ages 11-14 and meets every Sunday. The group is sponsored by Bahá’ís of Norwich, and mural funds came from the Regional Bahá’í Council and donations.
Stephanie describes the process as “more difficult than we thought it would be when we started. Keeping the lines from one step to the next required one person to be at the bottom of the stairs directing and another at the top drawing the lines.” The peacock is meant to symbolize “justice and integrity,” Stephanie says. JYSEP members at the dedication ceremony say that they see “art [as a way] to express our feelings” and tell people about the service project that adds welcome flair to Norwich’s historic downtown.
JYSEP “animators” Shelley Rothman, Ben Jacobowitz, Judith Post, and Stephanie Fielding accompanied the youth group kids to a pizza party at LaStella’s, up the street from the mural, as guests of the NCDC after the dedication ceremony.