New Mural Installed at Habitat for Humanity Winona

Teresa Wilkerson, Cheryl Witt, Angela Boozhoo, NDea Young, and Anissa Nelson pose in front of the mural they helped paint.

Everyone Deserves a Home mural installed at Habitat Winona.

The Joy Labs, Engage Winona, and Habitat for Humanity Winona celebrated the installation of a new mural at Habitat on Wednesday, May 1.

The mural’s message is clear and to the point: Everyone deserves a home. The story of the mural’s creation and the meaning behind the art go much deeper.

The mural came about when Sarah Johnson, a local community engaged artist who operates The Joy Labs, received a Minnesota State Arts Board grant to do a mural about housing. She wanted to work with community members and reflect stories that are less often told. 

So she reached out to Engage Winona, a local nonprofit that focuses on community engagement and lived experience leadership. 

Engage Winona had recently started a program, the Winona Area Kitchen Table, that elevates the voices of 12 people who have lived through homelessness and housing instability in the community. The program’s goals include advocating for tangible changes to housing in the area and building relationships between people with lived experience and stakeholders.

“Winona Area Kitchen Table is advocating for safe, stable housing for all, coming from the lens of having been directly impacted by barriers they seek to solve,” Johnson said. “This mural is intended to amplify their work.”

Johnson worked with the Kitchen Table group from summer 2023 through early 2024. Group members brainstormed potential messages, drew their ideas, and talked about what home means to each of them.

Kitchen Table program coordinator NDea Young said it was a natural fit for the group to work with Johnson and make the mural together.

"It started off with a conversation, with an idea, and letting a group of people be the voice of that work," Young said. "People started to see the bigger picture, and ‘everyone deserves a home’ came out to be something everyone was confident to do art about, based on their experience and what they want the community to know and be aware of."

Young said the benefits of making the mural are many. For one, it sends a powerful message to the community. 

"‘Everyone Deserves a Home’ just speaks for itself to me. It definitely speaks to our Kitchen Table goals and our priorities that we would love for the community to understand," Young said. "People are going to want to know more and stay connected with the work we're gonna do."

Creating the mural also gave the group an opportunity to work together on something creative, and to express themselves through art. 

"They were really proud to put it out there for the world to see it because they're really proud and passionate about it,” Young said.

“This mural not only carries our hopes and dreams for the future, but also serves as a powerful testament to the transformative nature of art and the role it can play in activism,” said Anissa Nelson, who is part of the Winona Area Kitchen Table. “Each of us put thought into what we wanted the mural to represent.”

Group members shared some of the meaning behind the art with Johnson as they completed the mural. Their explanations, and more information about the project, can be found on The Joy Labs’ website at www.thejoylabs.com/portfolio-2/everyone-deserves-a-home-mural.

Now the mural will hang at Habitat’s ReStore in Winona for all to see, and Young said she couldn’t imagine a better fit. Habitat for Humanity serving Winona County supports community members to achieve homeownership, and assists with vital low-cost home repairs to help community members maintain their homes.

“Their mission and vision shows the community that it can be done,” Young said of Habitat.

Habitat director Brittany Hennessy said, “We are grateful to be the home of the mural, as it beautifully displays our community's voice around housing. Habitat for Humanity serving Winona County aims to be a partner in safe, stable, and affordable housing for all. Together, we can learn and create change based on the voices from the Kitchen Table program.”