Ferris High School's Mural

THE BIG PICTURE

Mural connects continents

By Tara RyazanskyPhotos by Victor M. Rodriguez

It’s kind of a fun little game that I “Ilike to play when I drive around Jersey City,” says director of the Jersey City Mural Arts Program Brooke Hansson, “picking up all the different vistas that you could see our various murals from.”

It’s true that in Jersey City it’s hard to go a block or two without seeing some street art. One of the latest outdoor effort, brought to you by JCMAPS, is especially easy to spot. The Ferris High School mural, which was created by the Jersey City Youth Program, is visible to commuters from Interstate 78. “I took a trip just so I could see it from the highway,” Hansson says. “It’s amazing.

Part of the excitement of getting this particular wall is that it was a partnership with the Board of Education. Another thrilling element was that this is the back of a high school. So students are going to see it and know that their peers created that.” This is the 7th year that JCMAPS has held its Jersey City Youth Program. “We hire fine arts high school students who receive intensive outdoor art instruction that culminates in the creation of their own original large-scale mural,” Hansson says, adding that the arts education that students receive includes the economics and administration of art, like pricing and understanding contracts, along with technique. “We’ve grown exponentially. This was our largest group of students to date.”

This year 32 students created the mural, which is 100 feet tall by 30 feet long. The work represents Sister Cities, a theme that was brought to them by sponsor, Goldman Sachs. “Sister Cities is a program that was created by President Eisenhower in the ‘50s, Hansson says. “The goal was to promote economic, cultural, and informational trade between global cities and American cities. Jersey Cities has been forging these relationships with cities for decades. We have 22 sister cities in 20 countries.” Over the years, these partnerships with sister cities have been managed by Jose Arango who works in Jersey City’s Housing, Economic Development and Commerce Department. Hansson says that Arango helped connect the young artists with representatives from sister cities. “It was really an internal effort to locate these sorts of ambassadors, if you will, who helped connect us to the cultural representatives on the other end,” Hansson says. “It was really special. We would Skype in a lot of these individuals. For example, we were Skyping with the equivalent of what would be the mayor of Gamoa West. Obviously, the governments are structured a little bit different, but he would be what our mayor is. At the end of the conversation

as we were saying goodbye, the folks from Gamoa West held up the Jersey City flag, and everybody clapped. It was a way to celebrate our diversity, but also a way to realize that the world has become so much more connected. It was just a really powerful moment.”

Getting to Know You

The group spoke to representatives in Ghana, Brazil, and the Philippines, which was the research phase of the mural creation. “They do three weeks of research and design, creation and then composition, color selection, and then the final three weeks they’re on the wall executing it,” Hansson says.

Hansson says that after creating their initial design on large butcher paper the artists have to get ready to reach new heights. “I tell their parents, I’m going to put spray paint in their hands and stick them on a 20-foot scissor lift,” Hansson says with a laugh, adding that they receive training from a lift operator and a lesson

Partnering with the Planet

in spray painting from Distort, a local artist who has painted more JCMAP murals than anyone else.

Murals and Movies

“We make a documentary every year of the whole process, and then we screen that in the fall for the students and their friends and their family and the community and our sponsors and we coordinate that with an art exhibit,” Hansson says. The documentary will screen on October 27 at White Eagle Hall at 6 p.m. After that, it will be on view at JCMAP.org. The premier is exciting every year for Hansson, but this year is special. “We didn’t operate in 2020,” Hansson says. “Considering that we all globally had been through something so similar, we became a much more remote world. It was a ripe time for us to tackle this type of assignment. We had so much in common. We were able to use that to become so much more connected to each other despite distance.”—JCM