Louisville nonprofit and local artist unveil mural at Maker Alley downtown

A new mural in downtown Louisville behind the Old Broadway Theater at Broadway and Logan is bringing an inspiring message about mental health to the area.

Unveiled on May 21 in Maker Alley by The Pete Foundation, a nonprofit focused on youth mental health through proactive techniques, the organization hopes the new artwork will remind that everyone has experiences with mental health and highlight the need to break down the stigma when talking about it, chief operating officer Molly Jones said.

"Everybody is affected by mental health. Everybody has their own mental health, whether your mental health is perfect, or maybe it's slightly suffering or greatly suffering. It's not just mental illness," she said.

The foundation collaborated with Louisville-based portrait artist Damon Thompson to create a mural focused on inclusivity and change.

"It brings the topic of mental health into public spaces and into open view everywhere, whether it's in a private building or a park or a cityscape or a front yard," Jones said. "When it's something that's easily displayed anywhere you might look, then you don't feel like you're so alone and you have to hide your feelings. You can be open about them and discuss them."

Jones said mural elements also hold a deeper meaning, like the need for support from modern medicine and community depicted in the two figures, and the use of the central figure as a general portrayal of mental health.

"When we think of mental health, we think of the brain. We think of the head. It's that organ that embodies that part of our health," he said. "The staircase up to the brain is our journey in mental health, it's a journey to the brightness or the opening up of understanding and trying to heal any mental suffering we might have."

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Jones said it's also a way to advocate for changes in mental health services and care.

"We want to take a proactive approach to suicide prevention. We want to work on mental health and starting at a very young age," she said. "Mental health care must become one of our top medical priorities."

The mural is located at the corner of Broadway and Logan Street also includes an interactive element for visitors where they can write their name or the the names of loved ones who experience mental health issues as a way to offer support and tribute.

"We wanted to make it interactive because again that's how mental health care should be," Jones said. "We invite people to write the name of a loved one or their name on the wall, on a brick, over in the big yellow section. It's a way to pay tribute to loved ones."

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Artist and nonprofit introduce inspiring mural at Maker Alley in downtown Louisville