Harrisburg Artist Installs First Mural Inside Strawberry Arcade Skywalk

Reina Wooden’s first mural is also the first art installation of a mural painted in Sprocket’s Midtown studio.

Harrisburg-based artist Reina Wooden’s monumental first mural, “To the Great Susquehannocks and Its Mighty River,” was installed over the weekend and is now on display in the Strawberry Arcade Skywalk (between Strawberry Square and the Whitaker Center/the Harrisburg Hilton). 

This eight-panel piece also marks the first mural Sprocket has created fully inside our new studio space and transferred to site. (Sprocket’s second ever studio-completed mural, by artist Blake Showers, will be installed in York later this week!)

ABOUT THE MURAL:

Reina Wooden began this project by creating the piece on acrylic on canvas – a portion of which was selected by Sprocket’s Executive Director Meg Caruso to be projected and sketched onto a set of eight parachute cloths, which Reina then traced. In Fall 2024, at a celebratory grand opening for Sprocket’s new studio space in Midtown Harrisburg, artists, community members, and local officials collaboratively filled in her abstract work paint-by-numbers-style as it hung on the studio wall.

This is the first mural Sprocket has completed from start-to-finish in our very own studio, using parachute cloth, a durable, paper-like cloth that is then transferred to the mural site for installation. The installation process – which involved pasting the parachute cloth onto panels in the arcade like wallpaper – took roughly two-and-a-half hours on Sunday.

Final touches to “To the Great Susquehannocks…” will be added by the artist in the coming weeks.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST:

“I have always dreamed of creating a mural that reflects the history and culture of the Susquehannocks,” Wooden says of the Iroquoian-speaking Native American tribe who lived along the Susquehanna River. “Projecting one’s art onto a wall and/or parachute cloth and tracing it out was quite complex for me. It was at this moment I recognized how many abstract circles and squares I incorporate into my artwork. The meaning of my art is based on the color palette and shapes I select to describe an emotion I am feeling in that moment. No two shapes are alike just as no two rivers are alike. I want future Artists to embrace the connectivity of an Abstract world and build awareness within their surrounding communities. Art Heals All.”

ABOUT REINA WOODEN:

Born in Harrisburg, PA in 1976, Reina Wooden is a resident artist at The Millworks, known as “Reina 76 Artist|R76.” is an Abstract Expressionist and graduate of Howard University, Hospitality Management in Washington DC. “R76” is an “Outsider” Artist who wants her art to heal those suffering from domestic violence and depression. 

She often uses bold drastic colors, thick layers and jagged strokes on canvas, cardboard and fabric – a modern artistic approach towards interpreting historical and traumatic events and the individuals who influence it. 

During Sprocket’s 2025 Mural Fest, Reina served as our official Artist Assistant, contributing to projects with artist Sofi Rami and the Boys and Girls Club, and artist Dionn Williams. 

Her artwork has been exhibited at WITF Broadcasting and Media Company, the Art Association of Harrisburg PA, BLAQK House Collections of Pittsburgh PA, and is held in private collections in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, France, and the U.S. Embassy of Moldova.

Check out more of Reina Wooden’s Social Media: @reina76artist.