For the past two summers, PNC's
Moving the Lives of Kids (MLK) Community Mural Project has inspired at-risk teens to channel their energy into creating murals that brighten and beautify their neighborhoods. This summer, they've taken things to a new level, designing and creating murals that bloom and shimmer and speak and even move.
Last weekend, MLK collaborated with
Dance Alloy Theater of Pittsburgh and dancer Greer Reid-Jones to create a "live dance mural." As student dancers struck poses to create "body murals," MLK staffers painted the scene. Fluid moments became permanent works of art, which soon morphed into motion again.
MLK teens are also hard at work on a "green mural," created from grass, flowers, soil, fruits and vegetables. This project introduces them to environmental design, agriculture and green technologies. They're also creating a stunning glass mural in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Glass Center.
"We're going outside the lines this year," says Zandra Specter, spokeswoman for MLK. Specter says these new projects teach valuable skills, but the emotional impact on the students is even more valuable. "It gives them some positive affirmation that they really can do something," she says. "Our murals last for over 20 years. So they can see it and know they were a part of it. They can walk by it in 10 or 15 years and say to their friends, 'I was a part of that.' It's quite an inspiration."
Another unique project this year: MLK is creating a "video mural," which uses imagery from many of the other murals. One of the first installations to grace the new August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the video mural will include vignettes of artists painting murals, the dance mural performers posing, the Green Mural kids planting and shots of the glistening glass mural. The images will be projected on the walls of the Wilson Center and will form a documentary of MLK's work for summer 2009.
MLK has a total of 20 murals planned for 14 neighborhoods, a huge undertaking that involves more than 50 artists, 40 site managers and dozens of teachers helping teenagers create these works of art.
Writer: By Melissa Rayworth
Source: Zandra Specter, MLK
Image courtesy of MLK murals