Bill Cottman

Celebration of Life – The mural project began in 1996, located at Olson Memorial Highway and Lyndale Avenue in North Minneapolis. Created by John Biggers, Seitu Jones, Ta-Coumba Aiken and fifteen participating artists, it was constructed of cast stone, clay and metal and measured sixteen feet tall and one hundred sixty feet long. As John Biggers said, “the mural begins at the midway point. From this panel you can move left into the darkness of life’s beginnings or right into the light of being.”

The center panel pays homage to the motherland of African people throughout the Diaspora with its use of indigenous animals to represent the relationship of mother to father and earth to sky. The stool boasts an elephant base, a maternal symbol resting her tusks in protection over her young. At the very top is a lion, symbolic of the kingly sun and a paternal counterpart to the elephant. Queen Nefertiti’s profile is placed just above the comb’s tines, a reference to Egypt as the African origin of civilization.

The mural was destroyed on New Year’s Eve 2001 to make way for the Heritage Park housing redevelopment project.

Roger Cummings, Artistic Director of Juxtaposition Arts, was commissioned in 2004 to create a memorial at the site of the Celebration of Life Mural.

Early in 2005, the Seed Project Committee selected national artists Willis “Bing” Davis & Jon Onye Lockard along with resident artists Ta-Coumba Aiken & Seitu Jones to create a public artwork to honor the legacy of John Biggers and the Celebration of Life Mural. The artwork will be located within view of the original mural site.