This mural was designed through a participatory process involving the local Basque community in collaboration between Leire Urbeltz (lead artist), Jaione Inda Aldaz, and Asier Barandiaran from the Laia research group.

The mural design came out of two participatory workshops, hosted by Leire and Jaione, based on visual materials they researched from the archived of the Jon Bilbao Library. A primary focus of the conversations was “duality.” There is inherent duality in Basque culture, and the artists wanted to explore the duality of being both Basque and Nevadan. After generating words, color palettes, and collages, the community placed pre-drawn—by Leire—components into a rough layout. Leire then took all this information and input to compile the final image. Once the design was approved, local Reno muralist Joe C Rock assisted with placing the outline using a projector. The following week volunteers joined in participatory sessions to help paint the mural.

This project was supported by the City of Reno Arts & Culture, the Center of Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, The Lilley Museum, and The Jon Bilbao Library.