ASU art students paint mural for KADB

ALBANY — More than a dozen civic-minded Albany State University art students and their teachers spent the bulk of Friday painting a new, decorative mural along a retaining wall inside Albany’s Baldwin Park as part of a Keep Albany Dougherty Beautiful community service beautification project.

The mural, which will ultimately depict the silhouettes of children playing, is the second project the ASU fine arts department has partnered with KADB to complete, with the first being a raised garden mural at the Albany Advocacy Resource Center’s Adult Education Center.

According to KADB Executive Director Judy Bowles, the addition of murals in different areas of the city and county serves multiple purposes for the community, including removing something unsightly, as the walls that are being painted are typically covered in graffiti.

“We’re just excited to be partnering with the Albany State art department again,” said Bowles. “This is a visual enhancement for the park and for the community. It’s a part of the Fight Albany Blight initiative that the city has under way.”

Additionally, the mural adds something of artistic value to the park that Bowles said she feels the community as a whole can truly enjoy and be proud of, much the way several murals in downtown Colquitt have become a signature feature of that city.

“Personally, I hope to see more of them,” Bowles said of the murals in Albany. “We have the one on the underpass coming into town (on Broad Avenue), we have the one at the ARC and we have this one, and I think they add a lot to the community. It’s a wonderful visual enhancement. Look at the murals in Colquitt. They’re just awesome, and there’s no reason we can’t do that same thing here.”

While the city and its inhabitants certainly get benefit from having the mural, Bowles also pointed out that the students who gave their time to paint it also get an important personal memory, as well as the knowledge that they helped enhance the city.

“You know these young people will come back with their children in five years, 10 years and say, ‘I did that,’” Bowles said. “That’s a source of pride, and that’s what we have to do, build pride in our community. This is a step that helps that.”

ASU art teacher Meredith Lear-Perkins pointed out that the students are also getting to learn some very valuable lessons through the mural project as well, including understanding of being a contributor to a community and having civic pride.

“This is a learning engagement activity,” said Lear-Perkins. “They’re learning how to do a large-scale mural, but it’s also community engagement and we’re constantly trying to involve ASU in the community. And Judy is awesome about doing that with us. We’re trying to partner with them annually for things like this.”

Additionally, Lear-Perkins said the students are learning some important skills that will serve them after they leave school and start looking for work.

“This is technically an industry they can get into,” the ASU instructor said. “A lot of people actually get commissioned to do these. There’s a lot of opportunity out there for painting at this scale. And they’re learning to work together because we’re coordinating who’s doing what spaces, who has the larger brushes and the rollers, so it’s a group activity.”

Roughly 15 students participated in the mural project, Lear-Perkins said, and by all accounts, despite warm temperatures and the occasional ant, the art students were thrilled to be a part of the mural project.

“I’m an art major at Albany State and this is part of my community service, volunteering for the school,” said Masaalih McGhee. “I love to paint, and I’m having fun.”

The students worked through the day Friday to complete roughly half the mural and will return to finish the rest at a later date. The mural can be seen by accessing Baldwin Drive, which runs behind St. Teresa’s Catholic School and connects to Gillionville Road.