Empatía
We are more alike than not
When memories meet healing starts
Holding space is takes effort
It's going to be okay
Just be there for each other
We don't trust because we don't want to be hurt.
Completion Date: October 2025
Location: 211 N 18th Street, Richmond, VA
Lead Photographer: Katrina Hecksher Jones
Assistant Photographer: Natalie Ewell
Trust doesn’t appear overnight—it’s built, moment by moment, story by story, wall by wall.
That’s the spirit behind Trust Building/s, a four-part mural series created by artists Noah Scalin and Alfonso Pérez Acosta, in collaboration with Mending Walls. This project began as a personal passion—a heart project—for these two longtime Mending Walls artists. Born out of their deep commitment to community, connection, and public art that matters, Trust Building/s grew into something even more powerful with the addition of a new partner: One Small Step by StoryCorps.
Together, this collective formed a mural series that explores what trust looks like in action, with each piece inspired by a real, recorded conversation between two people who chose to sit down—not to debate, but to understand one another
If you are interested in having your own one small step conversation, reach out One Small Step and keep the conversations going!
“Interdependence is the center of Trust Building/s,”… “We’re bringing people with different beliefs into a process of depending on each other—or at least recognizing that they already do. It’s not that it doesn’t happen—it’s that we need to acknowledge it more.” - Alfonso Pérez Acosta
Listen to Noah & Alfonso sit down with Hamilton Glass to discuss the how the Trust Building/s began and how the project will be moving into a second mural!
Podcast : 19 Red | Fuel
Meet the Team
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Noah Scalin
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Alfonso Perez Acosta