About the Mural
The Beach Company, a Charleston-based real estate development firm, commissioned a large-scale mural for Canvas Tower, the 130,000-square-foot office building located at 301 College Street, across from Heritage Green. Award-winning Australian visual artist and photographer Guido van Helten’s photorealistic mural on the façade of the eight-story building features longtime Greenville resident and educator, Pearlie Harris. According to van Helten, who visited Greenville and met with a variety of community leaders earlier this year, the mural concept explores connectivity, diversity and unity in Greenville, using the history of integration in education as a unifying symbolic theme. The design references the history of desegregation and integration of schools in Greenville County and suggests themes around the value one teacher can have across many generations.