The mural should move: that's one of several recommendations from a seven-member task force convened by the Burlington City Council to look at the controversy surrounding the Everyone Loves A Parade! mural on Leahy Way, just off of Burlington's Church Street pedestrian thoroughfare.
Activist Albert Petrarca ignited discussion about the mural in October when he spray-painted a message of protest on the mural's explanatory legend.
Petrarca and others contend the mural — which overwhelmingly features white Vermonters of European descent in its representation of Vermont history — is an inherently racist work of art because it omits the multitude of ethnic and cultural voices in Vermont’s history.
The mural was commissioned by the Church Street Marketplace in 2009 and completed in 2012. Businesses paid to have their names and logos included in the mural.
In response, the Burlington City Council commissioned a mural task force, which has been meeting since May. The task force submitted its report and recommendations to the city council last week.
Weiwei Wang, chair of the task force, joined Vermont Edition to discuss those findings and the report's eight recommendations to the city council.
Broadcast live on Monday, Aug. 20, 2018 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
