{"id":12645,"date":"2023-02-28T09:54:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/?p=12645"},"modified":"2023-02-28T09:54:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:54:43","slug":"aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/uncategorized\/aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Aya Tower mural will honor former East Point Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aya Tower in downtown East Point will soon welcome residents to their new homes. As part of its redevelopment, the building\u2019s exterior will feature art to honor someone whose service had significant impact toward the city\u2019s present successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Housing Developer The Vecino Group and the East Point Housing Authority (EPHA), partners on the redevelopment, have commissioned a mural honoring former East Point Mayor Patsy Jo Hilliard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn addition to providing affordable homes, Aya Tower offered a unique opportunity to create something truly positive and impactful through art. Being able to connect the Vecino Group\u2019s Creative team with East Point Public Arts Coordinator Christopher Swain really was the spark,\u201d said Michael Spann, EPHA Executive Director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through her public service from 1993 through 2006, Mayor Hillard was instrumental in uniting the community to enable enduring positive impact:\u00a0revitalizing the public library, delivering the city\u2019s first community health clinic, and fostering relationships with civic and business leaders to bring growth opportunities to East Point just to name a few. Its longest-tenured Mayor to date, in 1993 she made history as the first female and first African-American to hold the office in the history of East Point\u2014as well for the State of Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, Mayor Hilliard and her late husband Asa Hilliard were life-long educators, which included teaching students in both Ghana and Liberia beginning in 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMayor Hilliard was\u2014and is\u2014a people-minded leader for East Point, so it\u2019s especially meaningful to be able to honor her on Aya Tower,\u201d said Christopher Swain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The artwork\u2014created by Atlanta-based artist Erica Chisolm\u2014combines Adinkra symbols with a vibrant portrait of Mayor Hilliard as well as her favorite saying \u201cBe True To Thyself\u201d. The team also includes the Atlanta-based art collective Living Walls, who specialize in large-scale, culturally-inspired public art. The seven-story piece\u2014all painted by hand\u2014is scheduled for late Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mayor Hilliard, with her daughter Robi by her side, received the news of the honor earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon seeing the artwork she said \u201cI can\u2019t believe it. But it wasn\u2019t just me. There were so many people\u2014everyone worked together to accomplish things. My goodness. I am just overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though there were many opportunities to highlight the community of East Point through something visual, to Vecino Group Chief Creative Officer Patrick McWhirt featuring Mayor Hillard seemed almost meant to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur mission is \u2018development for the greater good\u2019, which means each Vecino development should deliver more for its community.\u201d said McWhirt. \u201cThis mural will reach hundreds of people each day via Main Street, the MARTA as well as the students of Tri-Cities High School. The opportunity to honor and share such an inspiring life with so many people through art is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The name \u201cAya\u201d comes from a symbol representing \u201cstrength and endurance\u201d in the ancient Adinkra alphabet from West Africa. The new Aya Tower will provide 88 brand new homes (72 one bedroom and 16 two bedroom units) with affordable rents set at 40% &#8211; 60% average median income (AMI) and is on schedule to open Summer of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marcus McKinney, Vecino Group Development Project Manager, is excited for the energy that Aya will bring to the center of East Point. \u201cSuccessful developments obviously require the efforts of many\u2014this mural is a perfect example of that level of teamwork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Aya-Tower_view_from_West-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Aya-Tower_view_from_West-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Aya-Tower_view_from_West-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Aya-Tower_view_from_West-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Aya-Tower_view_from_West.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aya Tower in downtown East Point will soon welcome residents to their new homes. As part of its redevelopment, the building\u2019s exterior will feature art to honor someone whose service had significant impact toward the city\u2019s present successes. Housing Developer The Vecino Group and the East Point Housing Authority (EPHA), partners on the redevelopment, have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aya Tower mural will honor former East Point Mayor - Vecino Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/uncategorized\/aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aya Tower mural will honor former East Point Mayor - Vecino Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aya Tower in downtown East Point will soon welcome residents to their new homes. As part of its redevelopment, the building\u2019s exterior will feature art to honor someone whose service had significant impact toward the city\u2019s present successes. Housing Developer The Vecino Group and the East Point Housing Authority (EPHA), partners on the redevelopment, have [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/uncategorized\/aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vecino Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-28T15:54:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-28T15:54:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/AyaTower_Hilliard_Mural.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1231\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Client_User\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Client_User\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/uncategorized\/aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vecinogroup.com\/uncategorized\/aya-tower-mural-will-honor-former-east-point-mayor\/\",\"name\":\"Aya Tower mural will honor former East Point Mayor - 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