“All Your Efforts Do Not Go Unnoticed”
Public mural commissioned by Harlem Link Charter School
Harlem, New York, 2021
As the COVID-19 pandemic continued through the 2020-21 school year, Harlem Link recognized the remarkable contributions of community members who joined together to keep everyone safe, support each other through our losses and challenges, and make sure teaching and learning continued despite the conditions. The school commissioned community arts and Harlem Link Art Teacher Leslie Jimenez to produce a mural that would acknowledge these contributions and testify to our community’s resilience through the pandemic.
In her artwork titled: “All Your Efforts Do Not Go Unnoticed” Leslie Jimenez applies the medium of narrative mural painting, to honor and celebrate the present moment, the memories and histories through lines. The mural highlights, families, educators, schools staff members and the medical community. Capturing moments of beauty, effort, tenderness and kindness to celebrate members of our community, their labor and powerful everyday contributions to society. The mural honors the memories of the loved ones we lost during the pandemic, while preserving and visualizing hope for positive transformation.
“All Your Efforts Do Not Go Unnoticed” is a concrete act of appreciation, and a daily reminder that all members of our communities are deserving of sympathy tenderness, and admiration. This is possible and accessible. You can do it in small and deep ways, today.
About the Artist
Leslie Jimenez is a Dominican American artist, mother, and educator. Graduated from Parsons, The New School for Design and Altos de Chavon School of Art and Design, her work connects experiences about childhood, womanhood, motherhood and education. Leslie creates drawings, site-specific murals, art installation and prints. Some of the materials used in past works include, blown glass, embroidery, hair, ceramic, fabric and thread. Jimenez believes in the power of representation, and how emotionally responsive practices, when employed properly, can help community members to become kinder. Which ultimately undo cycles of abuse and violence, providing children and their families with strategies to navigate and manage the challenges of daily life.
Leslie’s work has been supported by The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art, The Laundromat Project, as and Columbia University. As well as The New School, El Museo del Barrio, City College and Rutgers University. Some of her works have appeared in The New York Times, PBS, the Financial Times, Manhattan Times, Mashable and CNN.
