Crews Take Down Murals Along the GRAM in Downtown Grand Rapids
It's been almost two and a half months since the rioting downtown Grand Rapids happened. It seems like it's been much longer than that with everything else that's happened since then.
Right after the riot, it was cool to see the city come together. The next day so many people came out to help clean up the damage along the city streets. Rockford Construction came through and helped businesses board up broken windows and any vulnerable windows that were street side, in case another unrest happened. Fortunately, that didn't happen, but what did happen was about 200 local artists who were contacted through Lions & Rabbits artist collective in Creston neighborhood, came downtown, and created some beautifully powerful murals.
The murals added vibrance to a dark moment and helped spread a powerful message about equality and the fight of the Black Lives Matter movement. As time has passed, businesses have taken down the plywood murals, replaced windows, and started re-opening. The plan is that very soon, all those murals will be available for public purchase, although the official plans haven't been released publically, I believe the idea is to have them for sale during the time that Art Prize was supposed to be happening throughout Grand Rapids.
With all that said, the final large display of the plywood murals started coming down today around the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Since the rioting on May 30th, the windows of the GRAM along Monroe Center, where WOOD TV's downtown studio is located were still boarded up. Crews were outside Monday early afternoon, taking down the art and replacing windows.
If you want to find out more about the murals going on sale, I'd probably follow Lions & Rabbits on Facebook for when they announce their plans.