Visions of Belonging

This month brought another joyful milestone in the evolution of the Healdsburg Multicultural Center: on September 8, the Healdsburg City Council approved two new murals for the Abel de Luna Community Center, following review by the City’s Arts & Culture Commission in July.

Created by artists Jake Messing and Blanca Molina, the murals grew directly from the community-led process shaping the Center. Both artists received support through Corazón Healdsburg’s Diversity in the Arts grant program, and their designs were developed through an iterative process with the project’s Design Advisory Committee, whose 15 members reflect a range of Healdsburg experiences and include voices often underrepresented in civic decision-making.

The two works offer distinct but complementary visions of belonging. Messing’s mural, developed in close collaboration with local youth, centers on weathered hands holding an abundant bouquet, surrounded by monarch butterflies, images evoking the dignity of labor, migration, resilience, renewal, and the deep relationship between people and the land. Molina’s vibrant, expansive mural draws together cacti, vineyards, poppies, marigolds, grapes, acorns, monarchs, local landmarks, children, agricultural workers, and other cultural imagery around the words, “Juntos, We Are Healdsburg.” A tree stretching across adjoining walls symbolizes the roots created through family, friendship, and shared experience. The two murals together reflect local history, agricultural heritage, cultural traditions, nature, and the many people who have made Healdsburg home.

In a statement to the City Council, Corazón Healdsburg described the murals as an essential part of the first phase of transforming the Center’s physical environment, noting, “The exterior painting and mural work are designed to…signal, visibly and boldly, that this is a place that belongs to everyone.” Even the creation of the artwork embodies that goal: community members will be invited to participate in painting the murals, making the finished works not just representative of the community but created along with it.

The murals will bring a highly visible expression of community identity to a project that began with a fundamental idea: belonging is healthcare. Research increasingly demonstrates what communities have long understood, that social connection and a sense of belonging are fundamental to health and wellbeing. Isolation, exclusion, and a lack of culturally affirming spaces can contribute to poorer physical and mental health. That understanding helped inspire the Healthcare Foundation’s launch in 2024 of a community-driven process to explore what a multicultural wellness center designed with, rather than simply for, Healdsburg residents might look like.

Since then, a community-led process facilitated by project partners On the Margins and Corazón Healdsburg engaged residents through a combination of surveys, listening sessions, and design workshops. The ideas that surfaced from this engagement ultimately produced a detailed master plan, complete with renderings by architecture firm Goring & Straja and landscape architect Carducci Associates as well as ten Design Mandates calling for a welcoming, intergenerational place for connection, cultural celebration, creativity, learning, health and wellness, and shared community life. A 15-member Design Advisory Committee of youth and adults is helping carry that community vision forward through implementation.

And the community chose a fitting home. The Abel de Luna Community Center is already alive with music classes, childcare, summer camps, ESL programs, youth sports, pickleball, and other activities. The building, its name, and the programs residents rely upon are all staying. What is growing is its capacity to welcome and serve the whole community.

The Tier 1 design work began this spring, with vibrant exterior colors helping transform the campus. Now, approval of the murals moves that first phase another important step forward. Future tiers (the master plan describes six in all) will extend the community-created vision into courtyards, indoor spaces, and new gathering areas.

What began with residents imagining a place where everyone could feel connected, supported, inspired and at home is becoming increasingly tangible as a longtime community center evolves with the community it serves. And a healthier Healdsburg takes shape alongside it.

To learn more about the Healdsburg Multicultural Center project, visit the project’s page.