BRATTLEBORO — This past August, downtown Brattleboro became the site of 17 temporary murals made by local members of the Afghan-led artist collective known as the ArtLords.
Created with support from the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) and in collaboration with the Providence-based public-art group Tape Art, the murals paid homage to ArtLords murals in Kabul that had been destroyed by the Taliban in 2021.
The five ArtLords members who reside in Brattleboro-Marwa, Negina, Meetra, Zuhra, and Abdullah-will join other local Afghan creators for a free one-day pop-up exhibition at BMAC on Monday, October 17, from 2 to 8 p.m.
The ArtLords will arrive at the museum at 2 p.m. to commence a large mural-style painting on panels in the Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Gallery. The public is invited to view the mural in progress.
The exhibit will also feature work by other Afghan refugees who recently arrived in Brattleboro, including handmade kites, robots built by a robotics expert, and garments made by a sewing group.
There will be a celebration of the one-day exhibit from 5 to 7 p.m., with remarks by the artists and makers at 6 p.m. The exhibit is presented in collaboration with the Multicultural Community Center of Southern Vermont, an arm of the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), the federal resettlement agency for southern Vermont.
“One year ago, the ECDC opened the Multicultural Community Center in partnership with SIT/World Learning, the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, and many community leaders,” Thomas Huddleston of the Multicultural Community Center said in a news release.
“Among our over 100 Afghan refugees - families, veterans, teachers, craftspeople, lawyers, nurses, cooks, dressmakers - were five ArtLords,” Huddleston added. “Over the past year, locals and newcomers have begun to know and support each other as neighbors, sharing our languages and cultures, talents and dreams, challenges and joys.”
ArtLords was established in 2014 as a global grassroots movement of artivists motivated by the desire to pave the way for social transformation and behavioral change through employing the soft power of art and culture in a nonintrusive approach.
They realized the opportunity for converting the negative psychological impact of blast walls on the people of Kabul into a positive visual experience through murals. Artists and leaders around the world have celebrated the work of the ArtLords, which has been displayed at the United Nations.
For more information, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124.