Hope Center of Hendersonville

Inclusive Public Art Initiative

Hope Center of Hendersonville, in Hendersonville, NC, received an Inclusive Public Art Initiative grant from ZSR.

The Hope Center of Hendersonville is a day program for adults 18 years and older with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Founded in 2007 as Hope Academy, this program offers opportunities for members to build friendships and social skills, continue life skill development, make choices on how they spend their time and co-create meaningful ways to spend the days together. It is the organization’s mission to “nurture an environment where members are valued, provided opportunities and treated with God’s love and compassion.” Hope Center members are racially and ethnically diverse, and have a variety of physical, mental and developmental disabilities. This public art project will be located front and center, on a well-traveled roadway, lifting up the members and granting much-needed visibility through authentic representation.

In alignment with the Hope Center’s “Nothing about us without us” philosophy, members’ voices have been centered throughout the decision-making processes that anchor the project. The Hope Center has commissioned local artists Becky Bonnema and Robert Allen, both of whom have decades of combined experience working with people with disabilities and long-standing relationships with the Hope Center. 

As a population that has been invisibilized in society, this story centers a group of individuals that oftentimes feel as if they do not have a voice outside of the day program walls, yet they have so much to give and greatly desire to contribute to their community. The goal is to make their building, a former church, into a work of art that properly reflects the members and to create works of art for the community to enjoy. 

The artwork will include a 2,600-square-foot mural that spans the facade of their building and three figurative metal sculptures, made from recycled materials, that will be situated in front of the facility. True to the process, in which all choices for the artwork have come from the members themselves, the artists will provide hands-on opportunities for both the members, and the community at large, to participate in realization of the artwork. After installation, Hope Center members will provide tours of the art to visiting community members, fostering new relationships and greater understanding.