Mural: Mt. Ida to Mt. Adams

CINCINNATI - Mount Adams is host to one of the most ambitious art projects of the summer. An Artworks' team of teenaged aspiring artists and an adult project manager have been hunkered down in an abounded church since late June.

The team is working on piecing together a history and mythology of the highest point of the city, which is at 1055 St. Paul Street. Inside the old cathedral, parachute paper has been spread out and covers half of the sanctuary floor. This is where penciled drawings are being painted.

There is a rock quarry- like atmosphere at the head of the church, where the alter used to be. That is where mosaics are being pieced together. Students are using snips and hammers to form the old cracked ceramic tiles.

"It's like putting a puzzle together," said Jazmin Smith, 16, from North College Hill. "It's very complicated sometimes, especially when your trying to get the little spots together."

Smith and fellow artists expressed that the work was gratifying to watch come together.

"We've been working on it for the past five weeks," said Smith.

The project managing artist at the site, Tina Westercamp, guides the students as they help tell the story of the area.

"Before Mt. Adams was called Mt. Adams, it was called Mt. Ida," said Westercamp.

Folklore of the area suggests that "Ida" lived in a hole carved out of a tree on top of the hill.

"The story goes that she did the laundry for the soldiers on Fort Washington Way," said Westercamp.

Whether the mural is a true historic representation or not is not the point of the mural. Instead, Westercamp suggests, the art project is to tell the stories of the area.

"What is really history, what is really the facts. It's the story that's important. Because it's the story of these people that inspire us to go further," said Westercamp.

The Mount Adams crew is piecing the story together and is preparing to display the finished mural at 1136 St. Gregory.

Artworks is working on 10 other mural projects this summer. Here are eight that can be seen working.

·Downtown – 119 E Court St (completed – with scaffolding) ·Downtown – 1014 Vine St, on the ·Central Parkway side (team painting) ·OTR – 28 W 13th St (completed – with scaffolding) ·Corryville – William Howard Taft Rd + Burnet Ave (team painting) ·Covington – Licking River ·Greenway and Trails (contact for more details) ·Oakley – 3142 Madison Rd, Loesch Hardware (team painting) ·West Price Hill – 4518 W 8th St (completed) ·Bellevue – 229 Fairfield Ave, Petri’s ·Flowers (team painting)

Click Here for a complete list of summer projects.