Our mural design is finally finished! TAB Mural students have been hard at work illustrating the ideas articulated by neighborhood residents.
On Tuesday night, November 16, ten students from the 29th Street TAB Mural Arts Team presented their design to members of the 29th Street Coalition. The coalition includes representation from the five neighborhoods where students from our ever expanding club live. We asked for feedback, and approval for our design. We wanted to showcase emerging youth leaders in these neighborhoods, and give adult residents an opportunity to interface with youth. As youth, adults, elders, social service providers, business owners and first responders get to know one another we construct safer more prosperous communities by building social networks.
Here is some of what the kids read from their journals:
“My name is Kevin from the Arts Brigade mural club. In our mural we have lots of creative things. Everyone drew something, even me. This is about our neighborhood. What there is and what you see are buildings, mountains and in the middle there is a ying- yang sign, people and animals. Wee are asking you to let us paint this. We want your opinions and to know how you feel about this wonderful mural design.”
“Hi my name is Blanca. I’m 10 years old and I’m from the Arts Brigade mural class. . I did this speech to ask for your permission for us to paint this beautiful mural. What I see in the mural is a community with all the people and a Food City, and all the animals and mountains and Egges, Burger King and the park with a pond.”
“Hi my name is David I am from the Arts Brigade mural program. In our mural we have lots of creative painters, and have done a lot of work on this creation.”
“Hello my name is Cinthia, I’m one of the kids from Arts Brigade Mural class. We drew the mural to show how our community works. As you can see we drew many buildings, like Food City and Boys and Girls Club and there is a ying yang sign.”
“I’m Infinity and I’m from the mural class. In our mural I see lots of people helping each other out and not being rough and lots of business is going on.”
“Hi my name is Brandon and in our mural there is a dragon that is shooting fire out and there is a mountain that is shaded. There is a community, Food City, Burger King and there is a bus and cars. There is the Boys and Girls Club with three kids. There is a ying-yang sign with people all around, and there are ducks and a big duck. Thank you and have a great night.”
The Coalition members were really impressed by the students and their design. A motion was passed to approve the mural design followed by applause from everyone. The youth beamed with pride and thanked the coalition for their support, handing out thank you cards to the Coalition. The next day in class (every Wed. 2:30 – 4:30) to begin the process of learning about acrylic paints and color theory as we prepared to transfer our design to the wall using a dot and grid process.
