#artreach mural program

[chloe-moya-visuals]

The Jazz Lounge

August 2022

This storefront mural project is located on El Cajon Blvd in the College Area Business District. I designed and led this mural as part of the ArtReach Mural Artist Apprenticeship Program. 

This design is inspired by the excitement, abstract improvisation, and fluidity of the jazz genre. I also stuck to mid-century inspiration and a minimal color palette to focus the eye on all of the subtle details. The flowing and warped checkerboards incorporate music notes, and the heart lines evoke the rhythm and style of a musical experience. Lastly, the music notes placed above the door signify the entrance to a place where creativity and music will truly be the focus. 

In partnership with the College Area Business District, I’m thrilled to have a hand in beautifying the neighborhoods where I grew up. After assisting on 15+ projects for ArtReach, this was my first time designing and leading a project entirely on my own!

[venusinorbit]

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) - A local group is trying to add some beauty and color to San Diego County.

The Artreach Mural Program is designed to allow kids to explore their creativity while establishing a connection to their community, something that's done even before murals are painted.

Oscar Gallegos, a student at John J. Montgomery Elementary, said this is the feeling he gets every time he sees the brand new welcome mural at his school.

"It feels great to think, hey, my friend helped make that. I helped bring this to life," Gallegos said.

He, along with his classmates, participated in the unveiling Tuesday morning. It was designed by the entire 6th-grade class. Their idea was to highlight the school's eagle mascot, palm trees that are seen all around San Diego, to an art brush that represents the arts on campus.

Isabel Halpern, the mural program manager, says, "They don't just start by painting - they start by drawing out our ideas having group collaborative brainstorms for what they can see for the walls on their school or community center."

All of this is done through the organization Artreach Mural Program, which works directly with youth in our community through their schools or community centers, giving them a platform and tools to create murals.

[sacredpipe-blog]

Anpetu Was’te

TUPE families

Here is a post and video on our latest summer project.

Everyone did a wonderful job creating beautiful art pieces of our sacred plant medicines/relatives.

Mitakuye Oyasin

Kathy Willcuts- Lakota

TUPE Cultural Educator

Julie DePhilippis-Aleut

TUPE Youth Coordinator

Please celebrate with us, the dedication of our newest art installation, the SCAIR Sacred Plant Paintings Distance Mural, created by SCAIR families enrolled in our Sacred Pipe Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) Program, in partnership with ArtReach San Diego.

The distance mural provided the opportunity for youth and their parents to paint one of four sacred plants: cedar, sweet grass, sage and tobacco. The painted pieces were then collected by SCAIR staff and assembled by the ArtReach team at the San Diego Unified Ballard Parent Center, Sa’mall ally Hapsh Conmunity Garden.

During this pandemic, we have faced so many challenges— the greatest being our inability to gather as a community. Thank you to ArtReach and Izzy for finding a way to bring our SCAIR families together again, in such a meaningful and empowering way.

Congratulations to all the artists and families who participated and contributed your beautiful work. Thank you to San Diego Unified for allowing us to bring another arts project to the garden, and to the California Department of Education for funding our TUPE Program. And a big and heartfelt thank you to Kathy Willcuts, Cultural Educator, and Julie DePhilippis, Youth Coordinator, for your hard work with this project and for all that you do for Native youth and families in San Diego. SCAIR is very proud of you. 🧡🌱

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5ZLVgSp2CQ

[katpowers]

Yesterday, ArtReach programming director Rochelle and I met with Ms. Campbell, the art teacher at McAuliffe Elementary, to discuss the upcoming Creative School Funds grant. I’m excited to work on this project with the entire school- from pre-K to eighth grade- and the active parent group. There’s a very exciting storytelling element integrated with this mosaic-mural, where students will interview their parents for StoryCorps. The collected multicultural tales of immigration and identity that come out of the shared family histories will influence the direction of the visual project, incorporating migrating butterflies, and hopefully many more new and relevant ideas brought to the table by the students in the design phase.

We’re hoping that Metra will agree to let us have access to this underpass as the final installation site, which is frequently passed by students on their way to school, and by the community in general as an entrance to the 606 trail is very near. Fingers crossed!

[gaymensfashion]

Water Conservation Contest Winner Builds School Garden

It was a garden built to teach kids about water conservation, but it’s become so much more to the students and staff at Fulton Elementary School.

“We work in a really tough neighborhood. It’s high poverty, high transient, high homelessness, high foster care, so our kids are coming from a lot of challenging situations,” said fifth-grade Fulton teacher Cynthia Trunzo. “The garden started as a place to do hands-on science and get the kids to see the beauty in their surroundings,” “It’s evolved into a space for meditation and reflection. Kids are using it in unintended ways.”

Cynthia played a critical role in bringing the garden to life – she was the one who submitted project into last year’s “Conserve Water at Your School Sweepstakes.” The school took home the grand prize, a $10,000 grant from Levi Strauss & Co., to bring its water-saving idea to life. The contest was part of the curriculum developed via a partnership between LS&Co., Scholastic and the Project WET Foundation. The program’s goal was to deliver education tools related to the use of water to around 1.5 million elementary school children across the U.S.

Fulton Elementary, whose home is in a county almost perpetually in drought, beat out over 800 other entries with its pitch to build a garden to teach about water-conservation.

The school began building the garden in April 2017, with the whole school pitching in, and celebrated its completion with a grand-opening celebration on April 27th of this year.

As a demonstration garden, students use it for hands-on learning in gardening, earth stewardship, and water conservation. Students are using the garden to observe butterfly interaction and life cycles. It uses numerous water-saving methods, including barrels to reclaim rainwater, rain gutters that smartly divert runoff and worm composting to enhance soil quality.

The school worked with ArtReach San Diego to add artistic beauty to the space with the help of students

from all grades. The nonprofit group provided an artist who drew a mural that tells the story of San Diego’s ecosystem, and then painted it with the seventh graders. ArtReach led the fourth and fifth graders in making mosaic stepping stones and embellishing tree stumps. And the younger students made little pots out of newspapers and planted sunflowers, radishes, corn and other seeds that were donated.

“Every day, they come out to see their plants’ progress,”

Cynthia said.  “They are getting good at identifying the plants and bugs.”

Teachers also use the garden to teach mindfulness, and dole out extra time in it as a reward. The space was previously unusable, aside from some benches that were rarely if ever used by the students, Cynthia said. Today, it is the school’s crown jewel.

“We have future plans to add more art to the garden. I would love to expand it and make our lawn area more usable with no-mow, drought tolerant grass for the kids to sit on.

“It’s just a really very pretty and welcoming space. It has brought the children new types of joy,” Cynthia said. “It’s a completely new atmosphere for them.”

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[katpowers]

We are *almost* done with this enormous mural/mosaic project. Keli and I finished installing the butterflies this morning and were going to grout all the screws, but rain was in the forecast. We could have, in the end, because it didn’t rain.. next time, Gadget. Sometime next week it will be completely finished, and this fall we will have a big party/parade to celebrate everyone involved, and in the spring of 2018 when the new plants have been established, the fences bordering the Exelon Observatory will be removed so the mural/mosaic can be seen from every angle.

It’s amazing just how many associations have been involved with this project: McAuliffe Elementary art teacher Keli applied for the Creative School Fund Grant through Insperity to have the entire school (+/-800 students) make handmade high-fire tiles inspired by monarch butterfly migration routes and their own stories of home, family and belonging. Students also crafted each of the mosaic panels earlier this spring. ArtReach, the partnering organization, was involved in every step of the way (many thanks to Karen and Rochelle for this opportunity). We couldn’t have done it without the kindness and generosity of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association parent volunteers. The installation site was given by the director of the McCormick Tribune YMCA and the Chicago Park District with much logistical and permitting assistance from 606 manager Vivian Garcia director of programs and partnerships, Caroline O’Boyle. Story Corps lended microphones and structure to the student-parent interview process wherein journey and migration stories were shared and helped to illustrate the “river of words.” 

Most of all, this project wouldn’t have gotten off the ground or been a success without Keli Cambell. Thank you for bringing your brilliant self to the wall every day, and for your energy, insight and positivity. With all of people working for these organizations, I am grateful and happy to have brightened up one small corner of the world.