South Seattle College mural celebration set for June 5, 12-2 pm.
Artists work on the new mural at South Seattle College during Community Paint Day. The mural will be celebrated on June 5 from 12 to 2pm.
Photo courtesy South Seattle College
Fri, 05/30/2025
Information from South Seattle College
South Seattle College (SSC) is holding a Mural Celebration Party on Thursday, June 5, from 12-2 p.m. to unveil and celebrate the college’s first mural, titled We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky. The mural design, art and story were developed by artist Toka Valu, and the painting was done by SSC students and staff and nearby community members.
Everyone is invited to join us in the Robert Smith Building Courtyard at SSC’s main campus in West Seattle (6000 16th Ave SW). Refreshments will be provided by SSC Culinary Arts Program Alumna and Afro-Indigenous chef, Chef Liiv and dessert by another Indigenous chef, Chef Shawn fromHawaktsup. Live music will be provided by the South Seattle College Music Club.
The event is sponsored by Seattle Colleges Division for Access, Community, & Opportunity and AANAPISI.
Event Details
What: South Seattle College Mural Celebration Party , Celebrating the Inaugural Mural and Unveiling We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky
When: 12-2pm, Thursday, June 5, 2025
Where: Robert Smith Building Courtyard, South Seattle College,
6000 16th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106.Parking is free, and we suggest using the South Parking lots for close access to the Robert Smith Building Courtyard (RSB on the campus map).
Who is Toka Valu?
Toka Valu is an Indigenous Pacific Islander Artist. His artistic influences are culturally rooted and informed by his cultural upbringing in Tonga and cultivated by the Coast Salish Lands, he now calls home in the Pacific NW. Toka’s practice integrates both his Tongan cultural upbringing and his transformative experience in the Pacific Northwest to establish a unique and bold artistry. As a multifaceted creative, his work aims to illuminate the unseen connections in our relationships and the resulting dynamics of these ties. Using a variety of applications, Toka’s work is contemporary in its interpretation and grounded in traditional Pasifika and Tongan aesthetic.
About the design:
Toka spent time at South Seattle College in various ways, attending the art gallery and combing through documentation of events and artwork produced by the 270 students, staff, and faculty who attended the workshops/art activations in the gallery in Winter quarter. He reflected on those stories and collaborated with Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Upper Skagit and Nooksack) to develop a design that incorporates creation stories, the Land that South Seattle College is built on and occupies, and the yəhaw̓ story. The design centers community care, community collaboration, and the importance of carrying knowledge into our lives.
Toka describes the story of the mural:
“Across two campus walls, a procession of human figures and animal allies run side by side, each carrying a torch not just of flame, but of purpose and hope. Graduates, workers, elders, and professionals of different vocations move alongside otter, cougar, bear, fox, frog, coyote, squirrel, big horn ram, and deer. Some carry tools, others carry memory and clarity of purpose. Each of them bears light.
Behind them rise the hills of West Seattle where the South Seattle College is situated and skies of the Duwamish lands, echoing inspirations of formline and Pasifika carvings as a tribute to the original stewards of this region. The sky columns, marked with ancestral faces, remind us that we do not move forward alone.
We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky honors the invisible labor, the intergenerational knowledge, and the boundless potential cultivated on this campus. It is a celebration of those who push upward and onward together lifting not only themselves, but the very communities that propped them up.”
About the project
The layout and painting of the mural, We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky, was led by full time faculty and artist Scott Mexcal. Twice a week, Scott facilitated a class built around the layout and execution of the mural, during which students learned how to use AR goggles to draft the outlines, to painting at a large scale, to finishing with final details. Outside of class hours, Scott led a number of community paint days, during which South Seattle College community and neighbors and artists from our surrounding communities were invited to join in the realization of this mural and community space.
An opportunity to support future mural projects
To support future mural projects at South Seattle College, please visit our fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/south-seattle-college-arts-and-mural-fundraiser