Mission Statement
The American Mural Project (AMP) seeks to inspire, to invite collaboration, and to reveal to people of all ages the many contributions they can make to American culture. A celebration of American ingenuity, productivity, and commitment to work, the project is intended as a tribute and a challenge.
Background
Founded in 2001, AMP is a nonprofit organization focused on honoring work by giving dignity to the American worker and initiative to kids. At its center is the creation of the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world—a three-dimensional mural 120 feet long and five stories high. Nothing like it exists in the world.
Artist Ellen Griesedieck first conceived of the mural in 1999, when she felt inspired by the scale of Boeing’s 747 fabrication plant, which she had visited in preparation for her latest in a series of commissioned paintings of working Americans. While creating the study of the mural, she began to see the project as an opportunity to inspire and challenge others, especially children—not only by depicting this work in the mural, but by involving them in the mural’s creation.
A tribute to American workers, the mural is a visual history of the country over the past century through its workers—from heart surgeons to steel workers, athletes to farmers, assembly workers to the fabricators of a 747. Through partnerships with schools, other nonprofits, and professionals in a wide spectrum of fields—including NASA, Boeing, Habitat for Humanity, and HealthCorps—AMP has engaged more than 15,000 students and adults across the country in the creation of the mural through diverse art projects.
AMP has led projects in 17 states, working with children from preschool to high school. In addition, multi-state projects continue with Habitat for Humanity and high-school robotics students. Among other activities, participants on the state projects have blown glass, sculpted clay, danced in paint, learned the indigo-dyeing process, and made relief sculptures in wet spackle. On each project, Ellen also works with an extraordinary local group or organization and its leaders as a way to promote the work of these organizations and also to give kids a chance to work with inspirational people. Examples include Minneapolis Girl Scouts working with Winona LaDuke and children living on her White Earth Reservation; prep-school students from Connecticut working with students of the Heritage High School in Harlem; and high-school robotics teams working with members of NASA’s recent Mars Explorer Rover Mission at the Jet Propulsion Lab, Kennedy Space Center, General Dynamics, and other venues.
Beyond the mural exhibit, education programs are the primary focus and include on- and off-site programs for schools, teacher professional development workshops, after-school enrichment sessions (partnership with the Winchester Public Schools), summer programs (ages 7–17), as well as internships and an apprentice-style Worker-in-Training (WIT) program for high school and college students.
AMP’s campus in Winsted, Connecticut, includes three acres, two historic mill buildings, and a small house, which are home to the mural and serve as education programming and administrative space for the arts center. Renovations to the mural building, which included raising the roof by nearly thirty feet, finished in the fall of 2018, and the lengthy process of installing the mural is nearly finished. In the more distant future, once Phase II renovations have been completed for the Education/Visitor Center, atrium, and outdoor space, AMP plans to expand its offering of classes and workshops. AMP is now open with regular hours, Friday and Saturday, 10am–5pm, and Sunday, 12–5pm, year-round. Learn more about visiting AMP.
