The Z. Reynolds Smith Foundation believes in the importance of inclusion, diversity, and equality. The ZRS Foundation created the inclusive public art initiative to build conversations within North Carolina communities about our common history.
The ZRS Foundation awarded 10 grantees with awards as much as $50,000 to create projects or installations that depict:
- Contributions or achievements of a North Carolina person or group, especially women, or people of color, whose story in a particular part of the state has not been told or is not often told;
- Ways in which the ethnic or racial diversity of our communities makes our communities better; and or,
- Ways in which cultural differences strengthen our communities
Eastern Carolina Christian College & Seminary partnered with Napoleon Hill, local Enfield artist, to honor this history. The artwork titled, “Closing the Circle”, tells the important, untold story through eight chronological mural panels and two plaques mounted on semi-circular brick walls. The artwork is located in Martin Luther King Jr. Park, an active community space in Roanoke Rapids, NC.
