The artist at the center of both projects was Michael Townsend, who helped establish Tape Art in 1989 and traveled around the country in the 1990s using tape to create large public murals. That Townsend and his friends would create a memorial to the victims of September 11 is not surprising. Through Tape Art, he has been using low-adhesion tape to help people heal for decades. In 1995, Townsend was in Oklahoma preparing for the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts. Then, the Oklahoma City bombing happened. The festival was canceled, and Townsend and a team of artists shifted their focus to creating a large mural for workers involved in the rescue and cleanup. Titled “The Hope Mural,” the installation was created on a wall in the Myriad Convention Center, where workers walked through while doing that extremely hard task. It was intended to be something beautiful for them to see, lifting their spirits. The mural made such an impact that, in 2005, Townsend returned to Oklahoma City with another team of artists to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the bombing.

The September 11 and Oklahoma City projects are large installations honoring big, public tragedies. But Tape Art is also involved in smaller art projects focused on healing. For approximately 17 years, Townsend and other Tape Art artists created murals at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, making more than 1,000 drawings in patients' rooms, waiting rooms, and hallways. Children in the hospital would be taught the technique of creating murals with tape. Working in groups with other patients and their families, the children would cover their rooms and the hallways with silhouette figures and scenes. Children who were so often not in control of what was happening to them were given a space where they could have control of the process and create something beautiful and inspirational.

And the process continues. If you visit Tape Art’s website, you can see recent projects, including a mural completed in 2026 at Brown University in Providence titled “Brown Sun.” The website explains it is “a memorial mural made in collaboration with Brown University students. This mural brightens the temporary wall built to block off classrooms that were the site of a school shooting the semester prior.” It features a bright sun, made of orange and yellow tape, as seen from the treetops, while birds are flying down the hallways and flowers are carried by the wind. It is hopeful and whimsical. Looking at photographs of these murals, I am amazed at the feelings they evoke — all with tape designed to mask off painting.

Lately, I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about heavy topics. This movie and my deep dive into Tape Art and what Michael Townsend and his friends have created using simple low-adhesion tape has made life feel a little lighter, with a little more hope. So, yes, adhesives are everywhere, sometimes in the most unexpected and delightful places. I encourage you to go to Tape Art’s website to see for yourselves what can be done with a bunch of rolls of tape.