Apple this week donated a sprawling Black Lives Matter mural that was painted on barricades fronting Apple Pioneer Place in Portland, Ore., to nonprofit Don’t Shoot PDX for safekeeping.
The organization announced taking receipt of the large community-created art piece in a weekly newsletter, saying the panels “reflect the responses of so many that were witnesses to this summer’s uprisings and the joint call to action against institutionalized violence and white nationalism,” reports The Oregonian.
Apple erected the barrier after the downtown Portland store was looted, its glass facade smashed and defaced by rioters, amid the George Floyd protests this summer. The company subsequently boarded up other locations in hotspots around the country.
Shortly after the barricade went up, local artist Emma Berger on June 1 painted a portrait of Floyd with the words “I can’t breathe” on the wood cladding. Others followed her lead, drawing artwork and writing messages relating to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Artists in the Portland community reimagined the blank canvas surrounding our Pioneer Place Apple Store and created a monumental art piece honoring the ongoing fight for justice and the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Apple stands in support of the artists and all who are fighting for social and racial justice,” Apple said in a statement.
Don’t Shoot PDX has not detailed plans for the mural and it remains unclear whether the artwork will be displayed publicly.
Apple Pioneer Place remains shuttered as it undergoes repairs.