BATON ROUGE – There is a new inspirational mural displayed outside of a gym near the Shenandoah area. A local gym owner and artist teamed up to spread positivity in a creative way during the pandemic.

Artist Jacob Zumo began painting murals after college. He studied the craft in Italy and wanted to incorporate Italian culture into his work, so he found a way.

He started working with the owner of Gym Fit, Joshua Roberts. The pair, through art, created something meaningful on a large portion of the building that used to be Foxy’s Fitness Center. 

The design is simple, yet powerful. A pair of hands placed together symbolizing prayer.

“At this time, all you can do is look up and pray. Everything is out of our control. At some point, you have to have a little faith and let things go. So this is just a prayer for the community and something positive to push their way,” Zumo said.

The timing was planned, and perfect. Roberts knows how hard the pandemic can be on business owners.

“We put about a million dollars in renovations [into the gym],” said Roberts. “We completely re-did the roof, the fencing, we got tons of equipment and we re-did all of the bathrooms.”

Roberts took over the building in September. But due to non-essential business closures, the novel coronavirus is putting a wrench in his plans.

"It's definitely kind of upsetting. But I try not to focus on it too much,” Roberts said.

“At a time like this it's [the mural] just providing extra hope for our community and maybe other communities away from Baton Rouge."

Roberts and Zumo are planning to add more art and host a drive-through art gallery in the middle of May, depending on the Governor’s guidelines outside of Gym Fit off of Airline Hwy.

At the event, Burgersmith will be selling food and people will be encouraged to take and buy photos in front of the mural. The proceeds will go toward Miracle League and Missionaries of Charity Nuns.

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