SAGINAW, MI — Flint muralist Kevin Burdick last week finished his spray-painted mural along the southern wall of the Saginaw County Health Department building.
Burdick was hired for the task by Saginaw Community Foundation, which paid him $8,500 from a $60,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
The grant was aimed at providing harm reduction services for citizens struggling with addiction and substance use.
Organizers said Burdick’s mural — which features birds flying free from a cage — was meant to inspire residents seeking help for substance use issues at the health department headquarters, 1600 N. Michigan.
The concept for the mural was inspired by input from a panel that included people recovering from substance use, said Kendra Kempf, program officer with the Saginaw Community Foundation.
”It’s better than any we could have ever imagined,” Kempf said of the mural. “The coloring of it actually fits perfectly with the building for the health department. It looks like it belongs on the building.”
Burdick created the mural Monday to Friday, May 9-13, in part using boom lift equipment to paint on the tallest points of the five-story building across the street from Covenant HealthCare.
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