Mural Stories: BLOOM: What We Plant in a Neighborhood Continues to Grow
Sponsored by Boys and Girls Club of Kern County
by Mary Anne Em Radmacher, The Arts Council of Kern
Sponsored by Boys and Girls Club of Kern County
by Mary Anne Em Radmacher, The Arts Council of Kern
Oct 01, 2026
There was a cadre of volunteer painters on that project. Minami was one them. My remembrance is that Jennifer said she was mentoring a number of young women and perhaps a couple of young men on the project,” Mary Anne Radmacher. Photo credit: Deidre Hathor
Under the Beale Avenue overpass, between Kentucky and Jackson Streets, something unexpected grows. Flowers. Greenery. Color. And, most importantly, young people.
BLOOM began in 2020 as a project of The Hub of Bakersfield, with support from community partners including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kern County, foundations, businesses and Ward 2 Councilman Andrae Gonzales. Gonzales has long imagined transforming the stark East Bakersfield underpass into something that said more about the neighborhood than concrete and traffic.
Kern artists Brandon Thompson and Jennifer Williams-Cordova turned that intention into something enormous and lasting. Williams-Cordova developed the design, modeling its young women on real neighbors and surrounding them with flowers and greenery. Columns of color suggest a changing sky, from morning through midday to sunset. Thompson realized the sweeping sky and painted the portraits. Volunteers, including artist Deidre Hathor, joined them.
Thompson remembers most how the community came together at so many levels during the long project, overcoming obstacles like easy access to water: “The community painted in their part, too.” Completed in early 2021, BLOOM didn’t just make an underpass prettier. Williams-Cordova then observed that bringing public art into traditionally underserved areas adds culture and identity while humanizing a place. BLOOM now stands at what many consider a gateway to Old Bakersfield. Its message stays clear: You matter here. Your possibilities are not determined by your ZIP code.
Zane Smith, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kern County, reflects, “Providing beauty where our children are is an essential part of the Club’s vision to serve as an asset to the community.”
The Hub still identifies BLOOM among its signature “Places” projects. But the mural has become something larger than a revitalization project. It is neighborhood pride. When graffiti appears, community members restore the blooms.
Six years later, those neighborhood-inspired girls are still standing beneath the overpass.
Still surrounded by flowers.
Still growing.
Still reminding every girl who passes:
You can bloom here.
And, in fact, you can bloom anywhere you choose
WHERE TO SEE IT: Under the Beale Avenue overpass, between Kentucky and Jackson Streets
Find more of KCFM's Mural Stories Series below:
- Mural Stories: A Slice of Bakersfield History
- Mural Stories: Dream Center Youth Mural
- Mural Stories: Nine Parks, One Mural
- Mural Stories: EASTCHESTER: One Word, An Artful Direction
- Mural Stories: The Roots of the Basque Mural
- Mural Stories: Color Arrived Before Most People Noticed
- Mural Stories: One Love in an Unexpected Place - A Mural That Gets Respect
- Mural Stories: When the Mind Blooms
- Mural Stories: Murals Are How a Community Remembers Out Loud
