A decade after she completed “The Winds of Change,” her now-iconic mural of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence on Warren Street, artist Illia Barger is ready to unveil her much-anticipated second mural in downtown Trenton. Entitled “After the Crossing”, the mural includes scenes from the First Battle of Trenton arranged around a central image of the final result—the surrender of the English several months later.
“Her murals are creating a graphic monument to Trenton’s Revolutionary soul,” said Richard Patterson, director of the Old Barracks Museum. “One of the most recognizable battles of the Revolutionary War took place right here in downtown Trenton, on streets that haven’t changed except for getting taller.”
The mural has been mounted on a wall at 111 East Hanover St. by the First Presbyterian Church, and will be unveiled to the public in a dedication ceremony at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 26.
“The medium of murals is a great way to teach the history of a location,” said Barger, “especially using local people as the models. It all becomes more real to them and they’re able to imagine what took place right here on the streets of Trenton 240 years ago.”
Barger painted the mural live last December during Patriots Week, the annual celebration of Trenton’s revolutionary history, in a six-day marathon that attracted over 500 people. Regular Trentonians joined historical re-enactors from the Old Barracks Museum to pose for her as the historical figures, and Ms. Barger also added two modern-day on-lookers, civic activist Algernon Ward and third-grader Nathaniel Donald, at ground level.
“It is vital that our children know why they should be proud of Trenton,” agrees Ward, who leads a group of Trenton-based re-enactors who highlight African American soldiers’ role in the revolutionary war and thereafter. “In our nation’s Ten Crucial Days, Trentonians did not quit, and we’ve been sending our sons and daughters into the world with the same ‘don’t quit’ fortitude ever since then.”
“After the Crossing” was a learning experience for Barger in more ways than one. She spent a full month learning the history and finding historical artifacts and images that influenced the composition, while learning a muralist technique she had never worked with. Like many works in the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, “After the Crossing” was painted onto parachute cloth and later affixed to the wall, rather than being painted directly on the wall like her previous work.
Barger is well known throughout the northeast for both her paintings and her large-scale murals, which include recent pieces in downtown Princeton, at Capital Health Hospital in Hopewell, and at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York City. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union in New York, and has been the recipient of numerous awards in her field.
The long list of sponsors and supporters expected to attend the dedication ceremony includes the New Jersey Historical Commission, NJM Insurance Group, Wells Fargo, Thomas Edison State University, the Mercer County Division of Culture and Heritage, and TDA Board Members Clark W. Martin and Anne LaBate.
Barger at work during Patriots Week 2015.,
