Among those who protested the police killing of George Floyd last spring were artists who expressed their grief and anger through painting.
They created hundreds of murals on the plywood that Twin Cities businesses used to protect their windows during the civil unrest. With winter on the way, two young Black women are leading a major effort to preserve the artwork.
At the far end of a sprawling industrial building in northeast Minneapolis, a small group of volunteers is busy sifting through large paintings. Most are on 4-foot-by-8-foot sheets of plywood. They’re stacked along the walls of two small rooms, and fill the space with the aroma of a lumberyard. Many include the name and image of George Floyd. Some feature poems.