A 100-foot brick wall in Richmond’s Fan District now carries a word in bold ghost-sign lettering: RELIABILITY. Painted by local artists Noah Scalin and Alfonso Pérez Acosta, it’s the first in a four-part series of murals under the banner Trust Buildings, part of the Mending Walls RVA public art initiative. Each mural will center on one of the four pillars of trust: reliability, honesty, empathy and consistency.
Back in 2020, Scalin and Pérez Acosta collaborated on Together We Rise, a mural born from the conversations and protests following the murder of George Floyd. That piece was part of the original Mending Walls project, which paired artists of different backgrounds to create collaborative public art in response to the chaos that was happening at the time in Richmond. Since then, the two artists had been looking for a way to work together again. It took time, but when the idea for Trust Buildings emerged focusing on what happens after the outrage.
Photos by Katrina Hecksher Jones
“Our first mural spoke to the big national moment,” Pérez Acosta said. “This time we asked, how do we get into those conversations in a more specific way right here in Richmond by highlighting people with different backgrounds and political views and showing how they literally build trust between their differences?”
They started with a concept: a series of murals, each one exploring one of four pillars of trust reliability, honesty, empathy, and consistency. They brought it to Hamilton Glass, the founder of Mending Walls RVA. Glass not only helped them secure funding and a wall — he also connected them with One Small Step, a project from StoryCorps that brings together strangers from opposite backgrounds for guided conversations.
“StoryCorps was piloting this in Richmond, and it was exactly what we described,” Scalin said. “They introduced us to several conversation partners, and that’s how we met Kaitlyn and Toi.”
Kaitlin Johnston and Torski “Toi” Dobson-Arnold, two Richmond residents with different racial and religious identities, met through One Small Step and recorded a powerful dialogue, which you can listen to HERE. They later posed together for a trust-building photo session. That image shot by photographer Kat Jones became the foundation of the mural. Key phrases from their conversation are now painted in faded block letters across the red brick. A stream of magenta freesias, chosen for their symbolism of trust, flows through the composition, tying everything together.
Photos by Katrina Hecksher Jones
“Interdependence is the center of Trust Buildings,” Pérez Acosta said. “We’re bringing people with different beliefs into a process of depending on each other—or at least recognizing that they already do. It’s not that it doesn’t happen—it’s that we need to acknowledge it more.”
Each mural in the series will highlight a different pair of conversation partners. A plaque with a QR code will link viewers directly to the recorded conversation behind the art, and the team is also producing a podcast and documentary to further explore the process.
“These murals are meant as community conversations,” Scalin said. “They’re supposed to spark questions about what’s possible while acknowledging the reality around us. We want people to find their own point of connection on the wall.”
Photos by Katrina Hecksher Jones
For Scalin, the mural is both personal and profoundly local.
“I’ve always been an activist, but these days I’m not out in the streets,” he said. “Instead, I’m doing the work I believe in public art that offers hope and possibility without ignoring reality. It pushes back against the notion that we’re stuck in separate camps. When people see images of others supporting and trusting each other, they realize, ‘This is possible.’”
That message resonated almost immediately. While the artists painted, passers-by stopped to ask questions, share stories, and thank them for “the message we need right now,” Scalin recalled. “That’s when you know it’s landing.”
Photos by Katrina Hecksher Jones
“For me, the wall really starts coming to life after the paint is dry,” Pérez Acosta said. “A mural isn’t just the artist’s anymore it belongs to everyone who interacts with it. I thought maybe people wouldn’t understand what we were trying to say, but almost everyone got it immediately. They understood the idea of focusing on reliability. They even understood the ghost-sign lettering as a way of bringing the past into the present.”
Work on the second Trust Buildings mural is slated to begin in October, with two more to follow in 2025 and 2026. Until then, this first wall stands as a public reminder—anchored by real conversations—that change happens step by step.
“It’s incremental,” Scalin said, “but you could be part of the process of making those steps forward and changing the narrative about what’s happening right now.”
Trust Buildings #1 – Reliability
- Location: 3100 block W. Main St., Richmond
- Artists: Noah Scalin & Alfonso Pérez Acosta
- Partners: Mending Walls RVA, One Small Step (StoryCorps)
- Series Plan: Four murals—Reliability (2024), Honesty (late 2024), Empathy & Consistency (2025–26)
- More Info: mendingwallsrva.com
Main photo by Katrina Hecksher Jones
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Mural Reveal Day May 24th, 2025 | Photos by Katrina Hecksher Jones
