BRATTLEBORO — “Today was one of the most inspirational days in Brattleboro I have ever experienced.”
Those were the words of Ken Schneck, a Brattleboro Selectboard member and dean of students at Marlboro College, who organized Sunday's Concrete Quilt mural painting in the High-Grove parking lot.
More than 20 community artists, some as young as 4 years old, came out to the mural, which is modeled after the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The mural transformed a graffiti-covered wall into a public commemoration of the 30 years of struggle against the AIDS crisis in the United States.
Schneck, who is host of the radio program This Show is So Gay and member of the local Pride Committee, designed the mural and got permission from the town to paint it on a wall not far from the AIDS Project of Windham County's office on Grove Street.
The AIDS Project, which is marking its 25th anniversary this year, also worked on the mural idea, with help from the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee.