Celebrating Diversity Through Art: The Culture of Home Mural Project

Headwaters Foundation is thrilled to host The Culture of Home, an incredible, multicultural mural project created by Soft Landing’s Girls Leadership Group in collaboration with local artist April Werle. Soft Landing works to welcome refugee and immigrant families to Missoula and foster an informed and supportive community.  

Commissioning this mural reflects our commitment to nurturing a healthy, welcoming and inclusive community, and promoting local women artists and artists of color through art programming at Confluence Center. This project provided students with an opportunity to explore the meaning of home by designing an interior scene filled with cultural objects that reflect their personal experiences and heritage. 

The resulting mural, located in Headwaters Foundation’s back outdoor space, celebrates the rich diversity of families in the Missoula community. We had the pleasure of sitting down with artist April Werle and Natalia Boise, Soft Landing’s Youth Program Coordinator, to learn about this inspiring collaborative project, and the students’ journey in envisioning and bringing the mural to life.

What inspired the idea for the Culture of Home project?

April: This is an iteration of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) student mural programs that I’ve led locally. During each session, we engage in an open dialogue about whether students see themselves culturally represented in Missoula. Unfortunately, the answer is almost always no. So, we discuss ways to create more representation, such as public art, which naturally leads into the mural process. 

How did the students choose the objects that represent home in the mural?

April: We started with a visioning process where each student chose an object, wrote a story about it, and sketched it. These sketches were then incorporated into the mural. We helped them pinpoint an object by asking questions like, “What do you have in your home that most people in the United States don’t have?”

What unique insights did this process spark for students about their concept of home?

Natalia: For some, identifying an object of cultural significance was easy. For others it was more challenging – they associated ideas, notions, entire landscapes with home. Some students identified objects from Missoula that feel familiar to them, or that are comfortable to high school girls, like makeup, which is very valid. I have seen girls from different cultures really bond over doing each other’s makeup. But as we dug deeper, we discovered things they have in their homes that aren’t common in the United States. For many refugee girls, who may have lived in several countries, the concept of a stationary home doesn’t really exist, but these objects provide some continuity.

What impact do you hope this project had on the students involved?

April: This project was about so much more than the end product. The process of coming together, having deep conversations and empowering the students to create something meaningful was powerful. My focus was on creating a welcoming environment where they could feel seen, understood and valued. I wanted them to feel proud of the mural.

Why was Confluence Center and Headwaters Foundation chosen as the location for the mural?

April: This mural was commissioned by Headwaters in part to honor their first and outgoing CEO, Brenda Solorzano, whose family came from Guatemala. The space depicted in the mural is reminiscent of Confluence Center, which Brenda is proud of creating as a welcoming and inclusive gathering space for the community. I also asked her to identify an object, and she shared the importance of her family’s comal, used to heat tortillas for dinner. Now part of the mural, it represents her personal connection to Headwaters and this project.

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To see this beautiful representation of what home means to our new neighbors, attend a First Friday event at Confluence Center – find information on these events by following Torrents: Art on Main Street.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.