BILLINGS — A Billings South Side mural that was vandalized with swastikas and other markings is being reimagined through a new partnership between a local property owner, a community organization and a local artist.
The mural, which celebrated art and community while speaking out against social injustice, was defaced last year. Property owner Ben Sherman said the vandalism forced him to make a difficult decision about what to do next.
Watch homeowner and artist talk about the future of the mural:
"When we first noticed the vandalism, I wasn't quite sure what we wanted to do," Sherman said Tuesday.
Sherman said he initially considered simply covering the damage, but ultimately decided against it.
"It was first, like, do we cover up the swastikas? And then I was like, no, I want to actually -- I want people to see that that exists. And then that's something that's happened in our community," Sherman said.
For months, Sherman weighed his options for the wall.
"Can we preserve it? Do we need to, like, replace the whole thing? Can we just, like, do parts of it?" Sherman said.
Sherman connected with a Billings community organization called Roots in Unity, which works to unite neighbors on the South Side. That connection led him to local artist Quincy Harris.
"We found our local artist, Quincy, who's going to be helping us redesign this," Sherman said. "They're the ones that helped connect us with Quincy."
Quincy, who has been creating art and murals for six years, said the opportunity was meaningful to him.
"It meant everything. I'm just super blessed to be here, and I'm just blessed to have this opportunity," Harris said.
Harris said his vision for the mural centers on bringing people together rather than simply highlighting problems.
"I think a lot of people like to touch on the issues, but not come up with a solution," Harris said.
His approach is to show both the issues and a path toward unity.
"Issues that everybody has to face honestly. So like, you know, ICE issues, Native American issues, African-American issues, settling issues, just all kind of, yeah, just all kind of issues," Harris said.
One of his ideas involves the community directly in the creation of the mural, timed to Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19.
"We had an idea actually that we were kind of, do like a hands tree with the community because on June 19th, for Juneteenth," Harris said.
"Were gonna have all the kids come up and just dip their hand in any color paint and just go behind here and we're gonna create a truth with everyone's hand. And the idea behind that will be that you won't be able to tell what colored person's hand it was. So we're all together," Harris said.
For Sherman, the new mural is also about acknowledging the full diversity of the Billings community.
"Recognizing that we have other communities here too. We have big Hispanic communities. We have Black communities. We have our Indigenous communities with the Northern Cheyenne and Crow just right next door," Sherman said.
