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A mural featuring Ruby Bridges will be installed on Jubilee Hill in Pittsfield.

Ruby Bridges Inspiration for 'Walk With Her' Mural in West Side

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Artist Pops Peterson stands in front of the wall in Pittsfield where the mural will be installed. Via Facebook.
 
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Big things are happening in the West Side.
 
"Walk With Her," a mural featuring Ruby Bridges Hall, the civil rights activist who became a symbol of school integration at the age of 6, will soon be placed on a concrete wall below Division Street on a well-traveled pass-through called College Way.
 
"It's going to be a landmark with a lot of meaning and definitions for the community, specifically, the West Side," said Tony Jackson, president of Westside Legends, a group that seeks to unite and promote the neighborhood.
 
The piece of art is about 28 feet high and be viewable from afar. It was made possible by Westside Legends, Mill Town Capital, Greylock Federal Credit Union, and Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
 
Bridges became the first Black student to integrate into an all-white public school in New Orleans in 1960. 
 
This mural features her as a young girl walking away from a sign that reads "Jubilee Hill" in reference to the hill where the mural will be located.  
 
The image was created by artist and public speaker Pops Peterson. In 2015, Peterson released his well-received series "Reinventing Rockwell," which put a modern spin on Rockwell's paintings that embraced diversity.
 
The mural is inspired by Peterson's reimagining of Rockwell's 1964 painting, "The Problem We All Live With," which features Bridges being escorted to school by federal marshals while food is being thrown at her.
 
Rockwell's painting was loaned to the Obama White House to mark the 50th anniversary of that event. Bridges Hall is a trustee emeritus of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. 
 
Peterson's version, "The Problem Persists," features a background of broken buildings and was inspired by the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown Jr. by a police officer.   
 
Rather than being painted directly on the wall, the mural will be blown up to the proper size and printed on vinyl for its installation. The city began prepping the wall in late October and the mural is expected to be up on Wednesday.
 
Planning began in May when Jackson was in conversation with local organizations about housing issues. He mentioned that artwork would brighten the area and immediately received support for his idea.
 
The mural's theme was voted on through a Facebook page after Jackson, NAACP member Kamaar Taliaferro, and architect Tessa Kelly brainstormed a few ideas.
 
After Bridges was chosen as the subject, the group thought it would be great for Peterson to design the image because of his previous work. A few months later the piece of art was in their hands.
 
"I didn't even think he would take our call, sure enough, he took our call, and three or four months later, we've got our Ruby Bridges going up with a Jubilee Hill," Jackson said.
 
The group was hoping to have the mural installed in late October but had to wait for proper conditions for the vinyl image.
 
They plan on having an official unveiling once the project is complete.
 
Jackson said there are other murals planned to decorate the West Side area. One is dedicated to the "Queens of the Westside," a group of elderly women who were prominent in the community.
 
Another mural titled "Gone But Never Forgotten" is staged to honor Robert Chadwell, a West Side resident who was one of the victims of a triple homicide in 2011. 
 
"The person in that picture is going to represent a great loss for the community," Jackson said.
 
Westside Legends plans to combine the two concepts for one large dedication.

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ServiceNet Warming Center Hosted 126 People This Winter

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

ServiceNet manages the warming shelter next to the church. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — ServiceNet's warming center has provided more than heat to unhoused individuals over the last four months and will run to the end of April.

It opened on Dec. 1 in the First United Methodist Church's dining area, next to ServiceNet's 40-bed shelter The Pearl. The agency has seen 126 individuals utilize the warming center and provided some case management to regulars.

While this winter was a success, they are already considering next winter.

"I've been on this committee many years now. There's probably only a few months out of the year that I don't talk about winter, so I'm always trying to plan for next winter," Erin Forbush, ServiceNet's director of shelter and housing, told the Homelessness Advisory Committee on Wednesday.

"We are in this winter and I'm already thinking what's going to happen next winter because I want to be really clear, winter shelter is never a given. We don't have this built into the state budget. It's not built into our budget, so there is always trying to figure out where we get money, and then where do we go with winter shelter."

She pointed out that warming centers are "very different" from shelters, which have a bed. The warming center is set up like a dining room, open from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., and folks are welcome to stay for breakfast.

"We are asking people to come in, get warm, be out of the elements," Forbush explained.

The warming center will close on April 30.

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