VIRGINIA BEACH – This city’s Cultural Affairs Department and the Strategic Growth Areas Office are hosting artists Sean Coffey and John Muldoon of The Coffey Shop studios from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to create a memorial mural to honor those lost in the May 31 Municipal Center mass shooting.
“Peace Doves” will be painted on the inner walls of The Loop at Rudee, a new community space at the Oceanfront on Thursday and Friday. The space is adjacent to 3rd Street and Atlantic Avenue, Cultural Affairs officials wrote in a news release.
The design was submitted last spring during the open call to artists and was selected as one of the finalists chosen for the outer Rudee wall mural and a runner up to Aimee Bruce’s “Prismatic Play.”
After hearing of the tragedy, Coffey and Muldoon reached out to the city offering to donate their mural, officials said.
The original design for the project was in reaction to a similar tragedy they personally experienced last year, only three blocks from their studio at a Jewish synagogue.
“‘Peace Doves,’ a play on origami birds and shadows, was created to show that communities can overcome anything if they work together, and to remind us all that there is light at the end of even the darkest tunnels,” said artist Sean Coffey. “I spent a lot of my childhood summers in Virginia Beach and was heartbroken seeing the recent tragedy, and would be honored to donate something in light of the event. Our thoughts and prayers are with your entire community as you endure through this struggle.”
