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  "description": "The design and painting of each mural doubled as opportunities for artistic activism and community engagement.",
  "path": "/evergreen-park-wichita-murals/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-07T16:28:24.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.shoutwichita.com",
  "tags": [
    "Evergreen Recreation Center",
    "Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural",
    "Evergreen Recreation Center Mural",
    "Evergreen Park Pool House Mural",
    "its page on the City of Wichita's website",
    "theshockermagazine.com",
    "shockerconnect.com",
    "Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs",
    "Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities",
    "As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns",
    "Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art",
    "How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'",
    "Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections",
    "Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation",
    "Yes! I want to support the SHOUT"
  ],
  "textContent": "Wichita’s North End has long been anchored by a deeply rooted Mexican-American community. The area is home to Evergreen Park — a 26.8-acre municipal park featuring a recreation complex with sports fields, a playground, a swimming pool, and three striking public murals that celebrate the community’s cultural heritage.\n\n“Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural” graces the east-facing front-entrance wall of the Evergreen Recreation Center. Painted by Felipe Ortiz and Ivan Salazar, a Colombian art duo known as the Fresco Exchange, the public mural was completed in 2018 as part of the Horizontes community murals project. __Photo by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe youngest of this trio of Evergreen murals is the “Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural,” which graces the east-facing front-entrance wall of the Evergreen Recreation Center. The mural focuses on Mesoamerican iconography, centering on Tlaloc, the Aztec deity associated with rain, water, and agriculture. It is a fitting echo of the agrarian and industrial roots of the historic North End worker communities that grew around the turn of the 20th century to support Wichita’s nearby rail yards, refineries, and meatpacking plants.\n\nAngled views of “Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural,” one including the Evergreen Recreation Center Park and Recreation sign. __Photos by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nPainted by Felipe Ortiz and Ivan Salazar, a Colombian art duo known as the Fresco Exchange, the mural is part of the Horizontes community murals project. Conceived and led by the Wichita-based artist Armando Minjarez, the initiative aims to connect neighborhoods through large-scale public art. The artwork renders traditional Aztec patterns and forms in crisp geometric detail, using dominant shades of feather-blue accented by yellow, green, purple, and red. The white, skull-like visage of Tlaloc dominates the work.\n\nFelipe Ortiz and Ivan Salazar, “Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural,” paint and concrete, 2018. __Photo by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe mural was unveiled to the public in a ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2018 by Troy Houtman, then the city’s parks and recreation director, and Cindy Claycomb, the Wichita City Council member who represented District 6.\n\n## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening\n\nGet the scoop on Wichita’s arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while.\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe anytime.\n\n“We’re here today to officially unveil this new asset for District 6,” Claycomb said. “Studies have shown that public art has a ripple effect of promoting a healthy economy and a healthy social environment.” She went on to thank the artists and Minjarez for his role in the creation of the mural as the originator of the Horizontes project.\n\nPainted in 1995 by Ryan Drake and Cody Handlin, the “Evergreen Recreation Center Mural\" spans the facility’s north-facing façade. The mural was repainted and restored in 2020. __Photo by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe center’s first mural — “Evergreen Recreation Center Mural” or simply Evergreen Mural No. 1 — is also replete with Aztec-inspired designs. Painted in 1995 by Ryan Drake and Cody Handlin, the artwork spans the facility’s north-facing facade. Drake, who later channeled his drafting skills into a career as a prominent regional tattoo artist, worked with Handlin to engage local youth apprentices in the painting process. The mural combines abstract geometries with trompe-l’oeil detailing that tricks the eye into perceiving depth — and a “real” child and man gazing into the distance — on an otherwise flat wall. The mural was repainted in 2020, restoring the work’s original warm red background and standout blue, yellow, and tan patterning.\n\nRyan Drake and Cody Handlin, “Evergreen Recreation Center Mural,” paint and concrete, 1995. __Photos by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe “Evergreen Park Pool House Mural” was completed in 2014 as a community endeavor led by Joel Escarpita working under the banner of the ICT Army of Artists, a Wichita collective of creatives, activists, and artists dedicated to community enrichment through public art. __Photo by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe smaller mural on the south-facing concrete wall of the pool house — a short walk across a parking lot from the recreation center — was completed in 2014 as part of another collaborative public art endeavor organized by Minjarez, whose community initiatives consistently blend art with social advocacy.\n\n“The pool house mural is a community mural,” he explains, adding that Joel Escarpita, now principal of Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet school in Wichita’s North End, led the mural-making, working under the banner of the ICT Army of Artists — a Wichita collective of creatives, activists, and artists dedicated to community enrichment through public art.\n\nDetails of “Evergreen Park Pool House Mural,” made of paint, cement products, and stucco in 2014. __Photos by Connie Kachel White for The SHOUT.__\n\nThe “Evergreen Park Pool House Mural” swims in colorful geometric shapes reminiscent of the sun and its rays, as well as barns, silos, and fields. Like its fellow Evergreen murals, it offers viewers a tangible reflection on such intangible things as community identity, change, ancestry, resilience, and pride.\n\n## The Details\n\n**“Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural” “Evergreen Recreation Center Mural” and “Evergreen Park Pool House Mural\"**\n\nThe Evergreen Recreation Center is located at 2700 N. Woodland in the El Pueblo neighborhood of North Wichita.\n\nThe park's hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Fridays.\n\nLearn more on the Public Art Archive pages for the “Aztec Design/Tlaloc Mural,” the “Evergreen Recreation Center Mural,” and the “Evergreen Park Pool House Mural”. For more information on the Evergreen Recreation Center, visit its page on the City of Wichita's website.\n\n* * *\n\n_**Connie Kachel White** is a writer and editor who has written about the arts in Wichita for going on three decades now. White, whose communications gigs range from book-editing to investigative reporting, is the founding and current editor of Wichita State University’s The Shocker magazine. More of her writing can be found online at _theshockermagazine.com_and_ shockerconnect.com_._\n\n****Popular Reads****\n❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs\n❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities\n❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections\n\n## Support Kansas arts writing\n\nThe SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.**\n\nYes! I want to support the SHOUT",
  "title": "In Evergreen Park, murals celebrate the culture of Wichita's North End",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-07T22:23:13.573Z"
}