MIDDLEBURY — Women at the Addison County Parent Child Center pooled their artistic visions to produce a mural celebrating racial equality. The painting that graces a stairwell at the Middlebury center features a mother and baby at the center of the natural world, surrounded by flowers and butterflies.

It is part of a larger racial equity initiative allowing the PCC to benefit from a $10,000 grant from the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation.The grant bolstered education materials and curriculum for the PCC’s Learning Together Program.

“The PCC mural project  is an opportunity to center Black joy and authentic artistic expression with young adults living in Addison County,” said Deidre Kelly, who heads the Learning Together Program.

Young mothers and other PCC participants, many of whom had little experience in making art, collaborated on the vision for the mural’s central theme and worked on individual parts of the painting. 

They had advice and technical expertise from mural artists at Juniper Creative Arts of Brandon — Will and Jennifer Herrer-Condry.

“The PCC community acknowledges individually and as an organization that racial equity  is a critical ongoing journey,” said Kelly.