September 2022

“Honoring the Past and Building the Future”

by Sheila Pree Bright
with New Georgia Project
📍 Brunswick, Ga

Photographic Artist Sheila Pree Bright—alongside the Brunswick community and New Georgia Project—produced 3 new murals in Brunswick, GA in a series titled "Honoring the Past and Building the Future.” The goal of this project is to inspire civic engagement and political power-building within the community of Brunswick by celebrating the deeply rooted existence and impacts of the historic Black culture of the city. Sheila's murals are a form of action to create awareness and bring shared communities together to critically look at the city's ongoing social and political struggles.

Photo courtesy of Sheila Pree Bright

Sheila Pree Bright is a Photographic Artist interested in the life of those individuals and communities that are often unseen in the world. Her objective is to capture images that allow us to experience those who are unheard as they contemplate or voice their reaction to ideas and issues that are shaping their world. In this process, what she shoots creates contemporary stories about social, political, and historical contexts not often seen in the visual communication of traditional media and fine art platforms. Her work captures and presents aspects of our culture, sometimes counterculture, that challenge the typical narratives of Western thought and power structures.

“These murals are about joy, celebration, healing, and legacy. It’s about honoring the past and building the future.”
— Sheila Pree Bright

Project Manager Ash McNamara
Muralists BKFoxx, Roderrick Davis, CPWon
Photos Cory Ellison, Sydney Foster, Jeffery Glover, Jason Vo

 

Honoring Ahmaud Arbery

This mural sits in the newly renamed Ahmaud Arbery Park to honor the life of Ahmaud Arbery, whose unjust death sparked conversations of change in the city of Brunswick and across the nation. As a result of the hate crime, opposition, and solidarity from the community, Georgia passed a long overdue hate crime law, imposing additional penalties if the prosecution can prove that hatred was the defendant’s motive for committing the crime. Three of the men responsible for this tragedy have since been found guilty of killing Ahmaud Arbery because of his race and are sentenced to life.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
”
— James Baldwin
 
 

Honoring Mrs. Georgia Gibbs

This mural honors the life of Mrs. Georgia Gibbs, the co-founder and secretary of the local chapter of Brunswick NAACP in 1929. By 1964, she had been to every NAACP meeting, participated in a successful attempt to get service at lunch counters, and was a valued strategist in successful campaigns to desegregate public accommodations before the 1964 Civil Rights Law. Mrs. Gibbs is honored and remembered dearly in Brunswick, and this mural creates space to spark conversations about her immense impact on the community, and how to carry that fighting spirit into the future.

📍 Historic Downtown Brunswick

 
 

Honoring Reverend Julius Caesar Hope

This mural honors the life of Reverend Julius Caesar Hope, an African American Baptist minister and civil rights leader in Brunswick in the 1960s. He became the President of the local chapter of the NAACP and was elected President of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP at the meeting held in Brunswick in 1966. He served until his appointment as Director of Religious Affairs for the national NAACP in 1978. In addition to his leadership with the NAACP, he was a fearless minister, father, friend, and inspiration to generations of people living in Brunswick, Georgia today.

📍 First African Baptist Church