Virginia-Highland’s ‘Welcome To The Neighborhood’ Mural A Collaborative Effort
The idea for the mural, with its partridges in a peach tree came from an image in a 1980 issue of The Virginia-Highland Voice, a now defunct neighborhood magazine.
Donnell Suggs / For WABE
At the corner of Virginia and Highland Avenues a mural reading ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ stood in a bright combination of peach and light green hues that matched the weather and mood for its unveiling last week.
“It’s such a nice time to take a wall and make it about something good,” Gene Kansas, the founder and president of Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate, said.
The VA-Hi, short for Virginia Highland, mural unveiling and party was just what a neighborhood get-together should be, loud, packed and fun. Along with the music, there was free food, both beef and turkey sliders were available, so were complimentary Paolo’s Gelato mini-cones served from a ice-cream cart. Paolo’s has had a brick and mortar location in the neighborhood for 20 years.
“Virginia-Highland has a strong sense of place, always has, and we’re trying to maintain and celebrate that,” said author Lola Carlisle, who wrote the book on the neighborhood, ‘Images of Modern America: Virginia-Highland’ along with co-author Jack White.
She is also one of the co-founders of the VA-HI Historical Society.
“Sometimes an image can become iconic,” she said.
The idea for the mural, with its partridges in a peach tree (“We had to do a peach tree being in Atlanta and all,” joked Kansas), came from an image in a 1980 issue of The Virginia-Highland Voice, a now defunct neighborhood magazine. It suits the neighborhood which has both a busy intersection a la downtown Atlanta and a bicycle-walker friendly vibe.
The point of the piece and the gathering was less admiring art for art’s sake and more celebrating neighborhood unity.
“This is about community, bringing people together,” said Kansas, who alongside his young son took the microphone to thank the dozens in attendance.
Kansas, designers Jason Orme and Jonathan Lawrence of PROPER, a local design firm, and a team from The Loss Prevention worked together to create the mural.
“All of this is a collaborative effort and it was fun to work on,” he said
Kansas once wrote in an op-ed that he wanted the city of Atlanta to “build on our history, not over it” and this mural in the heart of one of the city’s oldest and most affluent neighborhoods is proof of putting those words to action.
“This really focuses on highlighting our sense of community,” first-term Atlanta City Councilwoman Jennifer Ide said. “I love it when commercial property owners really want to engage like this.”
Top Stories
