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Daemen College Visual Arts Students, Together with Grover Cleveland High School International Club Students, Create “International Community Mural”
Students from the Daemen College Department of Visual and Performing Arts, together with students from Grover Cleveland High School’s International Club, have created an “International Community Mural,” to be unveiled 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 1, 2008, in the front foyer of Grover Cleveland High School, 110 14th Street, Buffalo.
The work will be composed of 18 individual panels, each created by Daemen visual arts students, working together with students from Grover Cleveland.
Additionally, Daemen’s Center for Sustainable Communities & Civic Engagement, and the Daemen Department of Service Learning worked with the College’s Visual & Performing Arts Department, in collaboration with Grover Cleveland High’s International Club, in making the mural project a reality.
Daemen Assistant Professor of Painting Felice Koenig developed the project and course last year through her participation in the Western New York Service Learning Coalition Fellows Program, which was funded in part through the Pennsylvania and New York Campus Compacts (PACC/NYCC) Consortium and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
“This project stemmed from the service-learning program at Daemen, which engages students in the community,” she said. “Daemen arts students went to Grover Cleveland’s International Club to get ideas for a mural from international students there who attend the school. The Grover Cleveland students spoke about ideas they felt represent who they are, and what thoughts and concepts are most meaningful to them.”
“Daemen’s art students then went about visualizing these ideas through painting. As the project went forward, the two groups of students worked together on the paintings, which enabled both groups to better understand each other.”
This is especially significant at Grover Cleveland High, where the majority of the students are refugees and immigrants. Students attending the International Club at Grover Cleveland come from 70 different countries and approximately 40 languages can be heard throughout the halls.
The mural will be on display following the July 1 ceremonies in the front foyer of Grover Cleveland High.