Pep Rally Inc.-The CLEAN Campaign
About Pep Rally Inc.-The CLEAN Campaign
Based out of: Tampa
Artist Statement
The artists of Pep Rally Inc. have joined forces with the Laundry Project to create CLEAN, a series of colorful laundromat murals aimed at delivering a positive message through the power of street art.CLEAN murals are painted on laundromats in low-income and high-crime communities where the Laundry Project assists low-income families with meeting the basic need of washing their clothes and linens, by turning laundromats into community centers.
Presented by Florida non-profit Current Initiatives, the Laundry Project covers laundry fees while volunteers assist with laundry services, entertain children, and create a caring space at each participating laundromat. Laundry Projects are now hosted across the United States through a partnership with Laundry Love in California.
Vibrant, dignified, and empowering, the CLEAN murals brighten urban areas and draw attention to an important community movement. Learn more at www.laundrybycurrent.org/clean-campaign.
About the Mural
In Fall 2019 this mural was replaced by one by Cory RobinsonThis mural is on the southeast corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Street South and 18th Avenue South, on the north side of Pete’s Wash House, facing 18th Avenue.
The mural is part of the Laundry Project, an initiative to turn laundromats into community centers of hope. It’s one of several SHINE murals that are a terrific example of community engagement – not only did the Laundry Project pay to paint the mural, they also paid for residents to come do their laundry while the mural was being painted.
The mural covers one third of a horizontal deep black wall, on the right-hand side closest to Martin Luther King Street. The mural is 11 feet wide and 13 feet high. One word, Clean, stands out in bright red, gold and aqua green, in slanted capital letters. The patterns of lines and dots inside each letter make it seem as if the word is cut from red, yellow and green Kente cloth, a traditional African textile.
Just below the word, Clean, are the words Laundry Project in small red capital letters, with the simple red shape of a washing machine between the words Laundry and Project.
Above and below this word are bright red, gold and green patterns. Above, and angled under the slanting roof, are wide, vertical red stripes. Four red stripes on the right, cut off by the slope of the roof, are decorated with simple gold patterns.
Near the center of this top section, but not exactly in the center, two aqua green stripes alternate with gold stripes. The two gold stripes are decorated with red patterns.
Below the word ‘Clean’ are angled Kente cloth patterns in red, yellow, green. At the base, two wavy yellow lines undulate over teardrops of green, against a red background.
To the left of the mural is an unpainted wooden fence that shelters the utilities for the laundromat.
The mural is a burst of color at a busy intersection. It was painted by Pep Rally, Inc., a Tampa studio who focus their design work on celebrating culture and telling stories.
