Hawken grad paints to build bridges

Artist Katherine Chilcote`s palette is a colorful mixture of heartbreak and triumph, sadness and joy. The 1998 Hawken graduate, recently featured in \"The Daily Life,\" a photographic chronicle in the The Plain Dealer, captures the life stories of people she meets and immortalizes them in murals that can be seen throughout the city at various churches. The placement of such works at religious institutions is deliberate with a pointed mission at unification. \"I hope my murals become dialogues between faith communities,\" she said in the recent Plain Dealer feature. The next such work-the sixth mural of her career-will soon be mounted on a wall in Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. Chilcote is also the founder of Building Bridges Mural Program, which provides development and job training for youth through the creation of public murals. The program is hosted in conjunction with West Side Ecumenical Ministries in Cleveland.