The City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs is proud to announce the unveiling of two new public murals by interdisciplinary artist Helina Metaferia, created in collaboration with Project for Empty Space, which served as both facilitator and host site, and Edison Properties, which provided a second host location.
The murals—located at 800 Broad Street and 35 Halsey Street—draw from Metaferia’s ongoing series By Way of Revolution and celebrate Newark’s rich legacy of activism while uplifting contemporary voices shaping the city today.
Metaferia led a Newark-based workshop for women-identifying BIPOC participants, exploring resilience, protest histories, and strategies for self and community care. From this gathering, Newark-born cousins Nashel Brantley and Karla Cruz were selected as the central figures for the murals. Each work merges their portraits with archival materials from Newark’s activist history, connecting past and present movements for justice and representation.
The murals will be unveiled on November 17th, at 2 PM, at both locations, with community partners, city officials, and local residents invited to celebrate this new addition to Newark’s public art.
“These murals were made at a time when we need to see representation of Black and Brown women uplifted—bolder, louder, and fiercer than ever before. Community building and public artwork does that work, at a scale that demonstrates an investment in our legacies.
This project is a true collaboration between The City of Newark, Project for Empty Space, Newark community residents, and myself as an artist. I am grateful for Nashel and Karla, two participants of my recent By Way of Revolution workshop, who are pictured in the murals. They have worked with me with great trust and vulnerability, sharing their image, personal family histories, and activist movements that inform the murals.
It is my hope that this art commemorates this, and serves as inspiration to the greater public.” — Helina Metaferia
Metaferia’s creative process was deeply informed by the Newark Public Library’s extensive archival collections, which document local and national activist movements across generations. Protest imagery incorporated into the murals includes 1960s–70s Black Panther and Young Lord photographs, materials from The Star-Ledger, the National Council on Negro Women, and other African-American, Puerto Rican, and Hispanic organizations, reflecting the mural subjects’ diverse heritage.
Buttons from the Library’s Hilda A. Hidalgo protest button collection adorn the mural figures, alongside new buttons designed through community input on what a modern revolution looks and feels like.
Personal and familial imagery plays a key role: family photographs from Nashel and Karla appear throughout both murals, including a recurring baby photo of the cousins. Their grandmothers’ portraits form the figures’ eyes, while cultural symbols—such as a Salvadoran flag—honor their multicultural lineage. A complete bibliography of archival materials is embedded within each mural, underscoring Newark’s ongoing story of resilience, representation, and pride.
About the Artist
Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, sculpture, video, performance, and social engagement. Her work incorporates archival research, embodied practices, and dialogical studies, supporting overlooked narratives of intersectional identities.
Metaferia’s solo exhibitions include Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2024-2025); RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI (2022-2023); and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2021-2022). Her work was included in the 2023 Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates. Group exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2025); Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (2025); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (2023); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI (2019); and Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Art Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2019). Her work is in institutional collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY.
Metaferia received her MFA from Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She’s held residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Recess Art, Project for Empty Space, and Silver Art Residency. Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, Artnet, Artforum, and ArtNews. Metaferia is an Assistant Professor at Brown University in the Department of Visual Art, and lives and works in New York City.
About the Partners
The Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs serves as the catalyst for participation, education, collaboration, and development to encourage and support excellence in the arts within the City of Newark. This division oversees the city's arts initiatives, supports community engagement in arts and cultural programming, provides organizational support to existing and evolving art institutions, oversees a world-class public art program, and encourages collaborative partnerships and investment in the city's artists and arts and cultural organizations. It supports the creation of a more sustainable, equitable, inclusive, and creative economy in Newark that enlivens our neighborhoods and ignites the imaginations of our children.
Edison Properties provided the second mural site at 35 Halsey Street, furthering its commitment to enhancing Newark’s public spaces through art.