CCE mural heading from Art Garden to Lancaster Museum of Art
. . .
Friday, September 10th, 2021
A group of young Center for Creative Exploration students has an important message about creativity:
Creativity isn’t the “possession” of any one special group. You don’t have to be “chosen” to be creative.
The act of being creative, these 7th- through 9th-graders confirm, belongs to everyone.
Creativity Belongs to the People, a collaborative mural made in instructor Adam Serrano‘s summer Urban and Public Art class, has been spreading that message in the College’s Art Garden for several weeks. In the next few weeks, Creativity Belongs to the People heads to the Lancaster Museum of Art, 135 N. Lime St., where it will be on display on the portico from Sept. 14-30.
Mentored by Serrano, the artists — Cooper Braman, Dillon Ernst, Sadie Keilly, Abigail Klein, Aiden Kost, Nalani Montalvo, Maya Murphy, and Brielle Turenne — first explored the basics of dynamic mural design and application methods.
“We reviewed a handful of artists from around the world,” Serrano says, listing “my personal hero Shepard Fairey (American), Falko One (South African), and Louise “Ouizi” Jones (Asian American). Shepard’s global work was an example of how graphic design can be translated into full building murals. Falko One represented the healing power of public art. Ouizi was a more in-depth look into how large murals are made.
The Urban and Public Art students then used that new knowledge to map out and build a mural of their own.
“My mural art is a combination of collage work and hard pops of color,” Serrano says. “The students really liked this style so we started with hand drawing our own patterns, symbols, and collages on paper. Along the way we practiced graffiti lettering styles, deciding what message we wanted to convey, and creating a color pallet we would stick to.”
“Students did an amazing job coming together as a team to unify their individual concepts into one cohesive vision as well as divide and conquer the actual painting of the piece,” says Natalie Lascek, Director of the Center for Creative Exploration. ” This piece truly was their own design, with instructor Adam Serrano merely being a facilitator for conversations and design choices while also helping them realize the pathways to completion.”
For his part, Serrano says, he was surprised and how involved his young artists already are with social and political topis. The mural’s theme of art’s universality, he says, “became the driving force with every idea.
“They worked as a team from the gate and became fearless with including everyone’s designs and ideas. The most rewarding part of all this was how I faded into the background and only chimed in to teach techniques as they took on the project like a true community of artists.”
Lancaster Museum of Art leaders, too, are excited about bringing the piece to their portico.
Part of the Demuth Foundation’s vision is ‘an inspired community where all recognize their inherent creativity,’ ” says Abby Baer, Executive Director, “and we feel this mural celebrates this endeavor with its Creativity Belongs to the People theme. A key component to our mission is inspiring the next generation of artists and creative thinkers, and we’re privileged to witness and help foster the creativity of the young artists who designed and painted the piece.”
Take a look at Creativity Belongs to the People:
_DSC1449
"Creativity Belongs to the People" in the Art Garden during 2021 Orientation.
