Eastern Oregon Youth Correctional Facility’s new mural is so much more than a painting on the side of a building.
Designed and created by youth at the facility in partnership with visiting artist Matteo Miles, the colorful artwork helped youth build critical life skills and leave a lasting mark. “It’s not just walls anymore,” said one youth. “There’s something lighting it up” so that, when new youth arrive, they’ll “see all this color.”
All that color embodied an “artistic freedom” over youths’ physical surroundings that is not common to correctional settings. “It felt like, this is our mural,” said a second participant. “It was just nice to not be told I had to do something—to go outside the lines and create my own experience with it.” Miles reflected on the power of watching youth “discover things about their own abilities,” and concurred that “[the mural] was theirs the whole way through.”
The project, too, was youth-driven from the beginning: youth told facility leaders they wanted more access to art and insight into creative-field careers. In response, Miles introduced the group not only to techniques in mural painting, but to the business side of the work: how to budget, manage supplies, and think about pricing and scale. “A lot of people don’t have a grasp on that stuff,” said a third participant. “It’s not just, ‘Cool, I can do this’ – no, it’s planning, it’s preparation. You’ve got to think it through.”
That professional focus resonated with several youth, but for others, the project was an opportunity to be part of something bigger, and shared. For the second participant, that opportunity was “more important than the art itself.” Youth brought their individual visions to the whole group where, working with Miles, they collaboratively planned a design. “We all just mixed it together and made it look good,” said the first participant, and that experience “brought us closer together,” according to the second participant. The process also strengthened the connection between staff and youth, who felt valued when they heard staff “embracing our ideas.”
The result is a sprawling mural filled with personal touches, regional references, and powerful cultural pride. “They brought a ton of ideas,” Miles said, who then guided youth through conversations about scale and composition. Beginning with the premise that “murals tell stories,” Miles worked with youth to weave a single, flowing narrative that people retain their individuality within a community. The result was a design where no single element dominates, yet each reflects something real about the youth who contributed it. From concept to completion, the mural became a visual record of how individual stories can shape, and be shaped by, a shared space and experience.
As youth leave Eastern, taking their next steps toward productive, crime-free lives, the mural will remain on the wall, telling its story to new youth, staff, and guests. One youth hoped the mural would “make the place feel a little more comfortable” to new youth, and that it would “make them want to ask questions” about their lives. Another youth hoped the mural would encourage future youth to, “start thinking differently about what they could do” with their time at Eastern and beyond. The mural, says a third, will remind youth who view it in the future that life is a journey, and “there’s more to life” and to that journey than the time they’ll spend at Eastern.