Newark’s Newest Mural to be Unveiled
Students, local artists, and community groups collaborate to beautify and refurbish abandoned South Ward lot
This event is free and open to the public and the media. Link to promotional video
Newark’s newest mural, collaboratively produced by Newark artist Steve Green and a class of 50 Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N) students, will be unveiled at a community block party in the city’s South Ward. The two-story mural evoking themes highlighted by national community development program My Brother’s Keeper is being installed on the side of a row house facing a formerly abandoned lot rehabilitated by Yendor Productions, YouthBuild Newark students and the Greater Newark Conservancy features a stage for community events. Festivities are free and open to all, including food and music, May 11, 2016 starting at 3:30p.m. at 239 Hawthorne Avenue at Chadwick Avenue.
Working with the local artists, community members, and their professors in the Arts, Culture and Media (ACM) 301 class, Anne Englot and Rodney Gilbert, the Rutgers-Newark students helped collect and research materials to design the mural and plan the unveiling. Collaborators in this community arts engagement project include the Rutgers University-Newark Chancellor’s office, the College of Arts & Sciences dean’s office, the ACM department, the Office of City of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark Housing Authority, Victoria Foundation, the County of Essex, the Greater Newark Conservancy, My Brother’s Keeper–Newark, YouthBuild, Gilbert’s arts education organization, Yendor Productions, and Gallery Aferro, a nonprofit alternative arts space founded in Newark in 2003 by artists Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox.
Gallery Aferro's mobile, professional, photographic portrait studio will be at the block party to take free portraits of Newarkers of the South Ward. All of those photographed will be able to download a digital copy of their portrait, and the portraits will be part of a show in October.
Students from ACM 301, a recurring class at Rutgers-Newark, annually collaborate with local artists and community members to produce murals as a way to unite and beautify neighborhoods in Newark. (Previous year’s work may be seen on the class’ facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/NewarkRisingMural/timeline ) This year’s mural was commissioned by the City of Newark as part of the My Brother's Keeper program. My Brother's Keeper, an initiative begun by President Barack Obama, encourages African-American male youth in the community to succeed. In addition to lead artist Steve Green, the project involved Malik Whitaker, who with his Brick City Project, paints bricks with vibrant scenes of Newark as a way to educate the public on the positive aspects of the city. The bricks will become part of a walkway through the rehabilitated lot, which the students, along with Yendor, the Greater Newark Conservancy and YouthBuild have been working to clean and refurbish.
What:
A Block Party celebrating the South Ward Mural created by Rutgers-Newark students in professors Anne Englot and Rodney Gilbert’s Arts, Culture & Media Class.
Who:
Anne Englot, Professor of Architecture & Humanities
Rodney Gilbert, Adjunct Professor, ACM; Executive Director Yendor Productions
Maren Greathouse, Director, Tyler Clementi Center at Rutgers University – New Brunswick
Steve Green, Mural Artist
Malik Whitaker, Brick City Project (walkway)
Emma Wilcox, Gallery Aferro, Mobile Portrait Studio
Evonne Davis, Gallery Aferro, Mobile Portrait Studio
Student Event Coordinators:
Kristyn Scorsone, RU-N graduate student
Kareem Willis, RU-N undergraduate student
Daisy Glasgow, RU-N undergraduate student
Destiny Deriso, RU-N undergraduate student
Sana Herring, RU-N undergraduate student
(45 other RU-N Arts, Culture & Media undergraduate students)
Sponsors:
Rutgers University–Newark Office of Chancellor Nancy Cantor
Rutgers University–Newark Office of Dean Jan Lewis, College of Arts & Sciences
Rutgers University–Newark Arts, Culture & Media Department (ACM)
Rutgers University–Newark, Robeson Campus Center (RCC)
Office of Mayor Ras Baraka
Newark Housing Authority
Victoria Foundation
County of Essex
Yendor Productions
Gallery Aferro
Newark Conservancy
My Brother’s Keeper–Newark
YouthBuild
When:
Wednesday, May 11, 2016, 3:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Where:
239 Hawthorne Avenue (corner of Hawthorne Ave. & Chadwick Ave.) Newark, NJ 07112
Media Contact:
Peter Englot, peter.englot@rutgers.edu, 973-353-5541
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Top photo of four images of the mural in process by Lauren Treadwell
Top left photo of a row house wall on Chadwick Avenue by Kristyn Scorsone
Right photo of artist Steve Green by Kristyn Scorsone
Bottom left photo of students (left to right) Alicia Kaur, Brittany Paden-Williams, and Alan Weingast by Barbara Cuming
