Students Collaborate with Artists to Create Atlantic City Murals

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From left, 淫性视频 senior Alexandria Montalvo, an Arts History and Studio Arts major from Mays Landing, senior Eva Leaverton, a Languages and Culture Studies major from Millville, and 淫性视频 junior Bea Gorant (in blue), an Art History major from Maywood, put the finishing touches on one of the murals on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Atlantic City that features former 淫性视频 President Vera King Farris (at right).

Atlantic City, N.J. 鈥 Alexandria Montalvo never thought artwork she helped create could have such an impact.

The senior 淫性视频 student put the finishing touches July 14 on a new wall mural in Atlantic City to honor four African American education trailblazers. The mural is one of two finished this week in time for the NAACP National Convention, which is taking place in the city for the first time since 1968.

鈥淚鈥檝e never done anything like this before,鈥 said the 27-year-old art history and studio art major from Mays Landing. 鈥淭ypically when I do art, it鈥檚 for myself and not for something as important as this. So, it鈥檚 really cool that I can tell people, 鈥楽ee that, I helped with that.鈥欌

Alexandria MontalvoMontalvo is one of a few students who worked on the mural, a collaborative project between the , Create 48 and the Atlantic City Arts Foundation.

The first mural, created by Brigantine artists Charles Barbin and Randi Meekins, celebrates 淫性视频鈥檚 50th anniversary and features Juanita High, founding director of the N.J. Equal Opportunity Fund and a member of the 淫性视频 Foundation Board of Directors; Dorothie W. Dorrington, educator and former Atlantic City Board of Education president; Vera King Farris, former 淫性视频 president, and Hannah Pierce Lowe, former principal of Indiana Avenue Vocational School (for colored girls) in Atlantic City.

The second mural, by New York artist BK Foxx, depicts three different civil rights leaders 鈥 Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Fannie Lou Hamer 鈥 from photographs taken of them in Atlantic City. King stands on the Missouri Avenue beach, the only beach in Atlantic City open to Blacks in 1964. Ali visited a Nation of Islam temple in the 1960s, and Hamer鈥檚 photo is from her speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.

Noyes Museum Executive Director Michael Cagno said the organizations got together with Brian K. Jackson, chief operating officer of 淫性视频鈥檚 Atlantic City campus, and Lisa Honaker, former dean of 淫性视频鈥檚 School of Arts and Humanities, to create something 鈥渢o celebrate history on a local and global level.鈥

鈥淲hen the conventiongoers come and they see these murals it will hopefully inspire them to take it back to the communities around the country and showcase not only people who are national icons, but people who made an impact on our local communities,鈥 Cagno said.

The mural featuring local educators is located at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue.

鈥淭o be able to honor not one, but four women, who paved the way for people that look like me makes me very proud,鈥 said Meekins, who owns the Dunes Gallery in Brigantine with Barbin. 鈥淭wo of the educators actually taught my grandparents when they were in school, so I really feel connected to this project in many ways.鈥

Barbin and Meekins painted the mural inside their studio on a material called parachute cloth. The duo spent about two weeks creating different parts on five 5-foot-by-10-foot sections. Over the course of four hours the night of July 13, those cloth sections were glued to the wall in Atlantic City. 淫性视频 students then painted the finishing touches.

Barbin said the cloth should last for several years, and this way the artists were able to create the mural quickly and without impact by weather.

As for the second mural, Create 48 owner Zach Katzen has always wanted to do something big with the photo of King because 鈥渋t really showed MLK in a way that I鈥檝e never seen him before 鈥 on the beach in a bathing suit, relaxed.鈥

Civil rights leaders muralKatzen, whose company advocates for public art projects in Atlantic City, connected earlier this year with local historian Lester Muhammad at 淫性视频鈥檚 African American Cultural Heritage Short Course. Muhammad knew Ali and provided the photo used in the mural. And since 淫性视频 had honored Hamer by naming an event room after her in the John F. Scarpa Academic Center, Katzen felt her photo would be the perfect final piece.

鈥淭he three images in this mural are all civil rights icons depicted during their time in Atlantic City, and a lot of people don鈥檛 even know that they were here,鈥 Katzen said of the mural, which is located on the side of the future Good Dog Bar & Restaurant, just down the street from a new 淫性视频 residence hall under construction at Atlantic and Providence avenues.

Katzen said it took about a week for Foxx, with assistance from artist Claudio Picasso, to complete the artwork, which was done completely by spray painting the building鈥檚 wall.

Cagno said the entire process has been a great experience for his interns.

鈥淭his gave them a taste about all the operational things that really aren鈥檛 sexy,鈥 he said. 鈥滻t鈥檚 real-life skills for students who want to engage in the arts, whether as a studio artist or a museum educator or some type of community curator. They鈥檝e gotten a chance to see what the process is like.鈥

Katzen said he鈥檚 grateful the project came together in time for the convention, and that 淫性视频 could be a partner.

鈥淭hese murals are a reminder to the people of this community that they come from a place of greatness, history and tradition,鈥 he said. 鈥淎 place that鈥檚 so much bigger and broader than they might realize. Amazing things have happened here, and they will happen again.鈥

鈥 Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen


Educational trailblazers mural