Activist Mural at the IMC

The IMC welcomed a mural in the summer of 2024 to brighten the south ramp entry leading to our main level, the universally accessible entrance. This mural honors beloved local activists Jenny Wong Barrett and Dave Monk and begins a dialog about sustaining the impact of our elders and activists. Leveraging their momentum, and the momentum of others before us, we have the opportunity to build the world we want that serves our mutual thriving.

You can submit a nomination to add a portrait to the mural! Click here to review the criteria and make your submission.

Additionally, the mural serves as an educational opportunity to learn about plants and critters native to these lands. So far, the mural includes images of plants: Milkweed, Echinacea (Purple Cone Flower), Black Eyed Susans, Rattlesnake Master, Compass Plant, Big Bluestem, Goldenrod, Purple Gentian, and others, as well as Monarch and Swallowtail Butterflies and a Luna Moth. We hope that the mural will serve as a starting point for the community to admire, engage with, and learn about the prairie, native plants, and the environment (scroll down for more info on plants and critters!).

Mural Lead Artist Maya Bauer

Lead artists Maya Bauer proposed the mural in 2023 to honor beloved local activists Jenny Barrett and Dave Monk. In 2025 the IMC Board approved the addition of a portrait of Belden Fields to join David and Jenny.

Maya was born on the rural prairie in Central Illinois and grew up in Urbana. She writes, “Artistic storytelling offers the opportunity to engage with and build our own shared history. David Monk and Jenny Barrett were remarkable activists who we recently lost, helping to shape our past and our future, whose stories can leverage more activist energy, more change making, and more investment in our communal thriving," later adding, "Belden Field's impact on our political identity, as a community, continues to shape how we think about what's possible for a future that is more equitable, and ways to continue to fight for that future."

Learn more about Maya Bauer and her art at www.mayaaeolian.com

Additional mural painting by Artist and Lettering Specialist Adrienne Bauer and interns Fiona Carter and Jenna Harmon. The hiring of high school employee artist interns was supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This mural was made possible by generous community donations.

Featured Activists

Jenny Wong Barrett (1949 - 2021) - Labor Organizer, Painter, Dancer, Computer Programmer

Jenny was born in Chicago shortly after her parents immigrated from China. She excelled academically, eventually graduating with honors from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She met her husband, Jim Barrett, and they had one son Xian (Sean). Jenny earned an MA in Computer Science at the University of Illinois in 1989 and worked as a programmer on the Plato system and for the Department of Psychology. She was a lifelong labor organizer and led the Academic Professionals Association, serving as its chair for many years. After retirement, Jenny dedicated herself to her passions for art and literature, winning awards for her watercolors, dancing regularly with the Urbana Country Dancers, and exploring Chicago's vibrant neighborhoods and cultural events. Jenny's legacy of compassion and activism lives on through her family, friends, and community.

Read her obituary here

DONATE HERE TO SUPPORT ART AT THE IMC

Dave Monk (1931 - 2022) - Prairie Artist, Environmental Educator, Advocate for Prairies, Radio Host

David Monk would tell anyone he met about the beauty and importance of our central Illinois prairies. Dave was born and raised in Australia and arrived in central Illinois for graduate school in 1961. He noticed that few people understood prairies and began a lifelong project to change that.

After earning his master’s degree in education, Dave moved his educational work off-campus under the name Educational Resources in Environmental Science (ERES). His teaching integrated arts, prairie tours, and storytelling. He established and taught “Reading the Landscape” at Parkland College and served for several summers as a visiting lecturer at the Chicago Art Institute, where he taught “Artist in the Landscape."

Advocating for inter-agency cooperation, Monk played crucial roles in preserving natural spaces like Busey Woods and developing initiatives like the Kickapoo Rail Trail. In 1987, he founded Heartland Pathways, preserving 33 miles of retired railroad line to conserve prairie habitats.

Dave also hosted "The Prairie Monk" on WEFT, a radio program that covered the environment, arts, and more. Until his final days, Monk tirelessly fought to save the last remnants of original prairie in central Illinois. He demystified the prairie for many of us and his vision lives on through us.

DONATE HERE TO SUPPORT ART AT THE IMC

Belden Fields (1937 - 2024) - Scholar, Organizer, Activist, and Socialist

Belden Fields was born in Chicago on Sept. 30, 1937, attended public schools there, and completed his B.A. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1960. Early work as a case worker at Cabrini Green deeply shaped his understanding of inequality and racism. He completed his graduate studies in political science at Yale, conducting dissertation research in Paris, and earned his Ph.D. in 1968.

He joined the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Political Science in 1965, where he became a beloved teacher, winning awards across campus. He supervised numerous student internships in the British Parliament, the French National Assembly, and other institutions. Fields authored four books and many articles, and served on the editorial review board of The Human Rights Quarterly. He was also an active campus leader, co-founding Citizens for Racial Justice, helping to increase minority employment and representation at the university, and serving for years on the University Senate and its equal opportunity committees.

Belden’s activism extended far beyond campus. He co-founded faculty groups opposing the Vietnam War and later helped organize solidarity efforts around Central America, the sanctuary movement, and local labor struggles. He played a central role in campaigns for racial justice, living wages, and union organizing, serving for decades in leadership roles within the Champaign County AFL-CIO. He also co-founded Socialist Forum and supported youth access to the construction trades. In the community, he worked with C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice on criminal justice reform and often represented them regionally. He was a longtime member of the University YMCA, receiving its Frederick Miller Award, and in 2013 was honored with the ACLU’s Victor J. Stone Bill of Rights Award.

Belden was also a co-founder, editor, and writer for The Public I of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, elevating voices not often heard in mainstream media. After moving to Clark Lindsey Village in 2020, he joined its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, continued attending UI Philosophy Club meetings, and wrote for The Public I until the end of his life.

Above all, Belden was a people person. He loved traveling and meeting new people and maintained lifelong relationships with friends both here and abroad. His greatest joy in life was being with people and working on social justice issues. And for pure pleasure, nothing gave him greater delight than preparing a good meal for friends and family. He was a man who enjoyed life to the fullest.

A full obituary can be found here.

Read more in the Public I about Belden's legacy; articles by Danielle Chynoweth here, by Jim Barrett here, by Walter Feinberg here, by Jeff Machota here, Carol Ammons here, Pat Simpson here, and Marie-Claude Smouts here. For all archived articles by and about Belden in the Public I, click here.

DONATE HERE TO SUPPORT ART AT THE IMC

Featured Plants and Critters:

Source/More info: www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/pur_coneflowerx.htm

Source/More info:http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/compassx.htm

Source/More info: scientific name: https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/monarch
Wingspan/Where it’s from: www.britannica.com/animal/monarch-butterfly
What it eats: www.worldwildlife.org/species/monarch-butterfly

Source/More info: https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/be_susanx.htm

Source/More info:
Size/Food/Migration Pattern: kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/luna-moth
Where it’s from: www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/field-guide/entry/luna-moth
Scientific Name: www.gbif.org/species/144101045

Source/Info: www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/Eryngium-yuccifolium.shtml

Source/Info: www.inaturalist.org/taxa/60551-Papilio-glaucus
What It Eats: www.birdsandblooms.com/gardening/attracting-butterflies/eastern-tiger-swallowtail/
Migration Pattern: www.gardenia.net/guide/eastern-tiger-swallowtail

Source/Info: www.illinoiswildflowers.info/grasses/plants/bigblue.htm

Images/Info: www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/bt_gentianx.htm
Flower Image: www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/downy-gentian

Source/Info: www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/cm_milkweed.htm

Source/info: www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/cn_goldenrodx.htm

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