In the seven weeks since November the walls of Moreau Center for the Arts, cultural artworks and paintings can be seen throughout the gallery. The artworks, designed by students from grades 6-12 during a seven week period, were a part of a mural project initiative titled, “Rise Together: A Mural Project/Unidos en Ascensco: Un Proyecto de Mural.” In collaboration with the art department, the showcase was held on Thursday from 5-7 p.m.
The exhibits ranged from abstract art and sketches to people of different ethnic backgrounds to photographs of the artists working on the murals. The most prominent work was a colorful painting featuring different animals and a young woman holding up the world.
The sketches were presented during Thursday’s art showcase at Moreau Center for the Arts during the evening, where it shows the progress of artworks that were painted.
Freddy Rodriguez, a local artist and an English language support services coordinator in the Bilingual Services Department of the South Bend Community School Corporation, collaborated with Moreau Gallery director Ian Weaver for the mural project. He expanded on the organization and planning process for the initiative.
“After our discussions for about a year and a half, we came to the conclusion that we would have a stretched canvas over this central wall in the gallery and that we would invite students to come and participate in a mural event, here I would lead them and coordinate and orchestrate the ideas and the thought process and our design and planning,” Rodriguez said.
For Rodriguez, the event was an opportunity to “motivate the girls into growing their love of art.”
He also discussed the meaning behind the theme, “rise together,” where he wanted students to understand the process and recognition towards creating their own art pieces and bring them further together as a community.
His goal for the project was for students to gain gallery experience in a welcoming atmosphere, as well as for students to “get the recognition that they deserve for the hard work that they put in, I hope that I can help them create that for someone else. Rise together is all of us rising together, not just them, not just me, but all of us.”
For Weaver, the theme also alluded to the current political times and how students can come together through art. He saw the mural project as a counteract toward this by embracing positivity through their crafts.
“We are going through a very divisive period, unfortunately, in our country and so the theme, ‘rise together,’ kind of speaks for itself [where] the students [are] coming together and rising up,” he shared. “It can be rising up in terms of self esteem or things going on at school. Certainly [for] the older ones, it might be rising up in terms of the political climate. It’s not lost on me that the students are Latinas.”
Weaver explained how the project was coordinated, with Rodriguez focusing more on the students and community connections while Weaver worked on the logistical planning. As for the artwork, students had the freedom to customize their pieces.
The project was targeted towards middle and high school students. “I specifically was wanting us to work with a group of students age wise that we don’t have here at Saint Mary’s,” he said. ”I thought it would be a really great opportunity to have these young students come to this place where everything’s set up for them and to work on the mural and feel like they were in a safe space as well.”
Prior to the showcase, the Office for Student Empowerment hosted gallery talks with Rodriguez on Oct. 27 and Nov. 7, where students were able to view his artwork.
Wall dedicated to the 10 student artists and project coordinator Freddy Rodriguez for the art gallery showcase on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., which was placed near the front entrance.
He shared context regarding the artworks portrayed throughout the walls and how he helped the students embrace their own creativity through a series of educational lessons and workshops. The photos represented former murals he participated in with slideshows showing his art journey and mural works.
During the event, Rodriguez presented student artists with plaques from St. Mary’s. One of the artists, eighth grade student Danna Arevalo Rivera, shared that her favorite part of the project was, “working with new people and experiencing how one piece can be so beautiful with all of our imaginations.”
Student artistss were awarded plaques for their time during the seven week project, which were handed out by Moreau Gallery director Ian Weaver and local artist Freddy Rodriguez. The plaques were laser printed at the college’s SPARK Lab.
For Weaver, the showcase was a success not only in terms of turn-out, but because of potential impact it made on the student artists.
“Selfishly, I hope that someone will come to Saint Mary’s down the line, but even if that doesn’t happen, I still think it was a huge success because it got them out of the house, out of their community into this space to work on communal projects,” he said.
Rodriguez hopes that the artwork inspired attendees to explore their own creative endeavors.
“I hope that they’re able to take away that all it takes is just consistency of being able to have a vision and follow it and see it through. When people see that you are willing and energetic for a project that’s going to be beneficial to a large group of people, you should honor that and try your very best,” he said.
In the future, Weaver hopes students can lead the project.
“We don’t want this to be a one shot deal and it would be great actually if even some of the same students came back,” he said. “The younger ones, as they grow up, maybe they become mentors, maybe they lead some of the brainstorming and planning sessions, so I could see this being something that we build on.”
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