A mural inside a historic mill building in Winsted will have anyone craning their neck to get a better view when they first walk in. It’s five stories high and 120-feet long, and it features the faces of American workers.
“The first time we started thinking about this audio tour, it was because friends of mine came in and I gave them a tour,” Ellen Griesedieck said. She is the founding artist of the mural that is at the heart of the American Mural Project.
One of Griesedieck’s friends suggested audio tours which shared the stories of the workers featured in the mural. The stories are either told in worker’s own words or through Griesedieck’s experience with them. Griesedieck said at first she was hesitant to explore the idea.
“I was like, ‘Ah, I don't think people are gonna like that. You know, it's too much.’ He said, ‘No, believe me,’ … and I am blown away,” Griesedieck said. “I'll see little kids going around, and they will count the [audio tour markers] to make sure they've gone to every station.”
In December, the American Mural Project announced the audio tours now have a Spanish language option.
Griesedieck said inclusivity is one of her top priorities.
“If whatever percent [of Hispanics] come in here and can't know more about the stories, understand more about the mural, then they're not included,” Griesedieck said.
The mural features people in all different sorts of professions, including truck drivers, farmers, copper mine workers and heart surgeons. Griesedieck said the mural not only honors their labor, it also highlights the collaborative nature of the American workforce.
“We are losing our ability to remember how exciting it is to work together and to really honor each other for the work we do,” Griesedieck said. “When people come in here and tell me how they feel at home and happy like somehow they're included, I feel that job is done.”
A labor of love
Griesedieck first conceived the idea of the mural in 1999 while working on a series of paintings on the American workforce. She said she met workers who inspired her while traveling to various worksites across the country.
“I wanted to paint them, because I felt people weren’t recognizing all the contributions that all of us make every day for everyone else,” Griesedieck said.
Griesedieck said she then thought, “What if I just took all of these working places I'd been to around the country and I created one giant mural? Something so big, so impossible and ridiculous, you couldn't miss it.”
As the project grew, so did the artists who contributed to it. Griesedieck said she wanted others to understand the power of the American workforce by challenging and inspiring them to collaborate with her on the project.
The American Mural Project (AMP) was founded in 2001 as a nonprofit that promotes and celebrates the American worker through educational programming centered around art.
Through various art projects with the AMP organization, thousands of students and adults across the U.S. contributed to the creation of the mural, including students in Connecticut.
AMP has no plans of slowing down, according to Griesedieck; Spanish audio tours are a step toward the organization’s goals.
“The most important thing was the inclusion, and I think that will continue to be our theme as we expand, as we invite more kids to be part of the programs, as we encourage them to think of their big ideas and to carry through,” Griesedieck said.
Learn more
The American Mural Project in Winsted is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12 p.m to 5 p.m.
Admission for the mural exhibit includes the English and Spanish audio tours. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Children under 5 and adults over the age of 100 get free admission.
