How public art helps to tell the Rx Kids story in Flint

FLINT, Michigan — When Cayden Fields, 12, first saw the newest Rx Kids mural in the Flint Cultural Center, his reaction was powerful.

“The mural makes me think of kindness and having fun with your friends,” said Fields, a student at Flint Cultural Center Academy.

Kindness, love, hope, and the joy of childhood are themes in all six Rx Kids murals created by Flint Public Art Project artists around Flint since the spring of 2024. But the latest mural, on the back of Sloan Museum’s Buick Gallery building (located at 305 Walnut Street), is overflowing with those elements and is also based on a historic United States marketing effort.

The United States federal government came to an important realization in the early 20th century that without healthy children, the entire nation suffers. President Woodrow Wilson declared 1918-19 the “Children’s Year” which ultimately resulted in some of the first federal laws and protections for maternal and child healthcare as well as a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of healthy babies, children, and mothers.

Courtesy photoAn original Children's Year poster that the Rx Kids mural in the Flint Cultural Center was based on.The Rx Kids program was launched in 2024, inspired by a similar desire to improve children’s health and address some of the same issues the nation was grappling with more than 100 years ago and still is today. It has embraced art, music, and culture to tell the story of the program’s impact in Flint. 

“When you launch a historic program like Rx Kids, you can’t just share the stories of science, or of policy,” said Dr. Mona Hanna, MD, MPH, director of Rx Kids, and associate dean of Public Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

“We’ve leaned on every discipline to really get people engaged. I am a firm believer in the power that the arts and humanities have in changing public opinion and reframing narratives.”

Courtesy photo | Brand Diverse SolutionsAn aerial view of the Rx Kids mural in the Flint Cultural Center, created by Flint Public Art Project artist Johnny Fletcher.As part of that vision, Flint Public Art Project artists have created large-scale Rx Kids-themed murals. Artists Charlie Boike, Krystal Cooke, Zach Curtis, Johnny Fletcher, and Zeb Molina have all contributed work to the effort since the spring of 2024. 

“Public art can be a gateway for people to become more engaged with bigger social issues,” said Joe Schipani, executive director of the Flint Public Art Project. “The Rx Kids murals are a great way to raise awareness of childhood poverty, and also the positive impact that lifting more kids out of poverty has on the entire community.”

A Flint spin on a ‘Baby Parade’

The most recent mural, done by Fletcher in the Flint Cultural Center, puts a Flint twist on an early 20th-century federal poster that features a “baby parade.” Baby parades were visual ways to celebrate and showcase the lives and needs of healthy kids around the country during the Children’s Year. 

Rx Kids hosted Flint’s first modern baby parade on June 11 in the parking lot in front of the Buick Gallery wall. The updated version of the poster includes the same powerful quote — “The health of the child is the power of the nation” — as the original poster, but it includes updated images of kids that represent Flint.

Kids in the mural, which was funded through a donation by the Economic Security Project, also represent programs at Flint Cultural Center institutions: a child is painting, one is carrying books, one is wearing a theatre mask, one has a telescope, and one has a musical instrument. Mainly, the kids simply represent what a joy-filled, stress-free, and happy childhood looks like.

Courtesy photo | MSUA Flint Rx Kids mural created by Charlie Boike.The mural is also the largest that Flint Public Art Project has done in Flint.

“We are grateful to the Sloan Museum for allowing us to use the prominent Buick Gallery wall for this mural,” said Dr. Mona. “We also wanted to acknowledge in the artwork the vital role Sloan and all of the Cultural Center institutions play in providing arts, science, literacy, theatre, music, and other cultural and educational programs to our kids in Flint.”

Fletcher, who was born and raised in Flint, began work on the mural in mid-June and completed it on July 9 during a youth workshop. During the workshop, approximately 20 kids from Flint Cultural Center Academy assisted in painting the red hearts, which represent Rx Kids, on the wall.

Courtesy photo | Shawny NeubeckerFlint Public Art Project artist Johnny Fletcher stands next to the rendering of the mural he created for the Buick Gallery wall.Fletcher has done more than a dozen murals around the city since 2022, including another Rx Kids mural at 602 W. Atherton Road that features a Flint family with their child.

“When I painted that family, I related to it because I had a daughter when I was in my early 20s, and we weren’t well off,” said Fletcher. “We could’ve used a program like Rx Kids during that first year of growing our family. It’s a very cool program that helps a lot of people in the city.”

Courtesy photo | MSUJohnny Fletcher has created two Rx Kids murals in the city of Flint.
As an artist, Fletcher has enjoyed the opportunity to embed himself into various neighborhoods in Flint while he works, gets to know people, and ultimately provides something that beautifies the city. He noted that while painting the mural at Buick Gallery, a couple stopped in their car each evening to watch him work and see progress on the mural.

"Art is a very nice tool that helps out or brings awareness to situations or hardships that people face,” said Fletcher. “It's nice to draw attention to things by thinking outside the box. I love creating art for my community and love making people smile.”

Bringing Rx Kids directly to neighborhoods

Other murals are in locations throughout the city. Work by Boike is located at 2424 Clio Road, Curtis at the Latinx Technology and Community Center (2101 Lewis Street), and Cooke at 1912 N. Franklin Avenue. Using murals as a tool to share the mission of Rx Kids directly into neighborhoods was an intentional choice.

“Not everyone has access to transportation, or can travel to an art museum, or can find information online,” said H. Luke Shaefer, professor of public policy, director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, and Rx Kids co-director. “But everyone can see, understand, and take pride in a beautiful work of art in their neighborhood. Making sure all of Flint’s residents are aware of what Rx Kids is, are proud of the work being done to end childhood poverty in the city, and honoring the importance of healthy children and babies to the overall health of our community is the goal of putting up these murals. Public art is an amazing way to tell those stories.”

Courtesy photo | MSUKrystal Cooke's Rx Kids mural on the east side of Flint.
Cooke’s Rx Kids mural is among around 10 total murals she’s done for Flint Public Art Project. Her work on Franklin Avenue brightens up an area of the city that has dealt with a lot of blight and abandoned buildings in recent years.

“The mural is colorful and welcoming, and I feel like it is in an area that could use more of that,” she said, noting that she just wanted her mural to “be vibrant” and to celebrate children.

Her vision for her work is to bring interesting, creative elements into neighborhoods where people can’t always access art.

“Bringing a sense of imagination or creativity into the neighborhoods helps people feel connected,” said Cooke. “Art is great for sparking feelings of hope, imagination, and healing. For the Rx Kids mural, it was important to me to represent some of the things Rx Kids stands for. I wanted it to be kid-related and fun, but also have healthy and healing colors in it so people feel positive emotions when they see it. I take wellness and health very seriously and see how poverty impacts our health. To use art to be able to bring awareness of how social issues like poverty impact us all is so important.”

To learn more about the Rx Kids program, visit: flintrxkids.com or call (844) 382-8447.