Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Bishop Dorothy Sanders Wells was skeptical when Downtown Jackson Partners called her about an idea to do a mural on the church. As a church, they wouldn’t be looking to put anything secular on the walls, only something that spoke to the church’s history and traditions. Wells soon warmed up to the idea once she realized she’d have a say in the mural’s design.
“You tell us what the mural needs to do,” representatives told her. “We’re not gonna try to tell you what the mural needs to do. You tell us.”
She responded, “The mural needs to speak to who we are as a church and to what it is that we have contributed to the history of this place, but also who we are in terms of being a welcoming community of Christians here in Mississippi.”
The completed mural depicts multiple Episcopal churches from across the state with three bishops looking over a flock of diverse people: Black, white, young, old, disabled. The work is part of Downtown Jackson Partners’ Alley Gallery public-art initiative, which seeks to revitalize areas in downtown Jackson through public art and to create outdoor spaces that people can enjoy.
“Our goal is to find those areas downtown and activate them for people who want to be there and have experiences downtown,” Downtown Jackson Partners President Liz Brister told the Mississippi Free Press. “Downtown’s got a lot of beautiful buildings, but the more we can do to just add interest and create opportunities for people to be outside and enjoy it, the faster our downtown will become vibrant.”
The church has 200 years’ worth of history in the state with its first worshipping community dating back to 1820. The church has historically held progressive views around race, culture and other social issues, playing a role during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Today, the church has 82 worshipping communities and three schools across the state. That history has been immortalized in a mural painted on the church’s wall in an alley.
“Andrea Kostyal, the artist, read my description of who and what we were. She did a lot of research, a lot of homework and did a marvelous job of being able to depict different architectural styles of some of our churches around the state,” Wells said. “She just did a wonderful job of including a wide range of God’s people in Mississippi.”
The mural is one of many projects Downtown Jackson Partners has planned for the downtown area in Jackson. Mississippi artist Reshonda Perryman recently completed a new mural behind the old Cadillac dealership on State Street. The mural faces Commerce Street, which is where the museum trail connects to downtown.
Downtown Jackson Partners chose Kostyal, who resides in Hattiesburg and has painted murals in other Mississippi cities, with Wells’ input. Hattiesburg itself served as an inspiration for the Jackson project, as the Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art has been working to hire local artists to create 100 murals in the city, having completed 71 so far. Brister credits those behind the Hattiesburg project with doing an amazing job in revitalizing the city’s downtown area and other parts of the city through public art.
“We look at other cities around the country, but also right here in our state. And anything we can do to create and to lift up the talent we have in the state, whether it’s through music or through art, that’s the experiences that people wanna have when they come to Mississippi,” Brister said.
‘I’m Not Looking to Paint Flowers’
Hungarian artist Andrea Kostyal responded to an open call from Downtown Jackson Partners, submitting a pitch for her idea for a mural. She had no idea about the church’s history until she did some research and met with Bishop Wells. The artist migrated to the United States 26 years ago and has now lived in Hattiesburg for 18 years. When the bishop shared her vision for the mural, Kostyal immediately felt connected.
“These are things that are very important to me. I told the bishop at the first meeting that I’m not looking to paint flowers or paint things that anybody can do,” Kostyal told the Mississippi Free Press. “I like to paint in my public art things that’s important to me, and I want it to be important in the future, which is supporting diversity and unity. And all of my public arts are supporting that.”
The three bishops watching over the Mississippians in the mural are Bishop John Allin, Bishop Duncan Gray Jr. and Bishop William Mercer, who each played key roles with the local Black communities in Mississippi.
“During the 1960s, there were a lot of attacks being made on Black churches here in Mississippi. Bishop Allin and other clergy were instrumental in trying to figure out how to get those churches rebuilt. He was really involved in raising funds and securing volunteers to help get those churches built,” Wells explained.
His goal was to get at least 100 churches rebuilt and they were able to reach that goal. So much so, that Bishop Allin spoke at the rededication of the rebuilt Mount Zion Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. This church is included in the mural.
Duncan Gray Jr. was a senior minister at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Mississippi, during the time that James Meredith was desegregating the University of Mississippi. Meredith’s presence led to some disruption on campus from dissenters.
“Bishop Gray came out and asked folks to please go home, stop the violence and just allow this student to come to school,” Wells said.
The Jackson church’s very first bishop, William Mercer Green, baptized enslaved persons at a time when some Christian denominations weren’t receptive to that idea. The church’s earliest worshipping communities were enslaved persons, shown in the Christ Church at Church Hill’s records.
Kostyal created the concept for her mural’s design on her iPad using the program Procreate. She found different images of Episcopal churches featuring people and buildings and created a digital collage. Bishop Wells approved the general design, giving input on which specific churches she would like the mural to include.
“This one took a long time to prep the wall. There was a lot of sanding because it’s an old building and not really in good shape. I do like to doodle on the wall, just like stars and different kinds of shapes, almost graffiti style … and that helps me outline and upscale the drawing on the wall. It sounds a bit difficult, but when you’re doing it, it feels like it belongs,” the artist explained.
The painting took the artist, who works at the University of Southern Miss’ Gallery of Art and Design, around six to eight weeks to complete between other commitments. For this endeavor, she would travel back and forth between Jackson and Hattiesburg, which takes approximately 90 minutes each direction. Somedays, the weather wouldn’t permit her to go out and paint. Other days, it was too hot, and she would have to start later than usual. Overall, though, Kostyal said she had a “great time” working on this mural and that it was “really, really a lot of fun.”
“As a cityscape artist, I really love the urban landscape of downtown Jackson,” she added.
‘Our Art, Our Music, Our Food’
Downtown Jackson Partners hosted a dedication ceremony to unveil the mural to the public on Aug. 5, with seating and tables set up under the mural so that people could enjoy the scenery while using the space to eat lunch. In the future, Bishop Wells wants to include a sign and QR code next to the mural to give people the opportunity to learn more about the bishops and churches depicted.
“I hope they’ll understand that we’re a church that really believes in showing welcome and love to all of God’s people and making certain that all of God’s people feel included in the ministry that we do,” she said. “I hope that becomes a big takeaway.”
Downtown Jackson Partners President Liz Brister believes public art is important to the city and the artists because their work can be used as a vehicle to tell the stories of the people that live in Jackson and can serve as examples of the talent that resides there.
“ It’s our art, our music, our food … that’s part of what we’re trying to curate to pull people into our state and, in this case, into Jackson,” Brister said.
Quality of life is a big factor in what attracts people to a particular city. People should be able to walk out of their office building and get ice cream from a local vendor or walk over to Smith Park to hear live music, Brister argues. These are experiences that the nonprofit organization is aiming to foster by revitalizing the downtown area. She wants Downtown Jackson Partners to help cultivate the Hinds County city’s visual identity.
“You mentioned New Orleans earlier. I know we don’t have to tell your readers what it’s like to walk around the French Quarter or walk around their central business district and experience the shops, the restaurants, the music, the street art,” Brister said. “That’s what we have had in our city in the past, and that’s why we’ve got to create in the future in a way that’s better than anything we’ve done before.”
“I think curating those experiences that tell the story of our state and tell the story that is uniquely Jackson is where we’re headed,” she added. “We just need everybody to get on board. That’s the only thing missing is you.”
To learn more about the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, visit dioms.org. To keep up with Downtown Jackson Partner’s downtown developments, visit downtown-jackson.com.
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