A series of vibrant murals is now on display at Queens County Family Court, the work of 14 high school and college students who participated in a local youth apprenticeship program.
The young artists unveiled their creations during a celebration at the courthouse, located at 151-20 Jamaica Ave. in Jamaica, on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
Creative Art Works, a local arts non-profit organization centered around empowering youth, selected the Youth Apprentices (YA) through their Public Art Youth Employment Program. The program gives teens and young adults full-time summer jobs and part-time jobs after school to create art and multimedia projects. This Queens-based summer cohort was one of six different work sites that offered 115 young New Yorkers an opportunity to create large-scale public art and short documentary films.
The YAs applied for the Public Art Youth Employment Program through the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), a city-wide program that connects youths ages 14-24 with career exploration opportunities and paid work experiences each summer.
The YAs – Alana Douglas, Zeinab Elidrissiy, Yassin Essa, Emely Hernandez, Nia Lland, Amanda Louie, Ifra Mahumud, Sekera Mitthell, Mahan Nanandham, Brandon Romero, Raul Ventura de la Rosa, Tiarah Shard, Parris Smith and Amanda Wong – worked for six weeks under the guidance of their teaching artists to complete the murals.
The three murals, “Animal Express,” “After The Storm” and “Helping Hands,” all have different themes meant to invoke a sense of peace and comfort for families waiting for their court hearings.
Some of the YAs remarked on how the experience furthered their love for art.
“This is my first time doing a mural as an artist. I did art in high school and I drew and painted. Now, as a LaGuardia Community College student and fine arts major, I’m looking forward to majoring in art,” said Lland.
Lland explained that the preliminary process included interviews with police officers, lawyers and court assistants to get a sense of what should be represented in the artwork. “We looked at previous murals and we saw love, family and care. What is something else that is not there and needs to be shown? We wanted to switch it up a bit and give a meaningful story for people that come here,” she said.
Wong, a Bayside local, worked on the Helping Hands mural and currently attends the Fashion Institute of Technology, majoring in illustration and storyboarding.
“Honestly, it was a really good experience for me. I’ve been looking forward to a career in art illustration, and through this career, I see a lot of different people’s perspectives and get to learn about other people’s ideas and thoughts, so I thought this was very helpful,” said 20-year-old Wong.
For many of the YAs, the summer cohort was their first experience with mural art.
“I felt like this could be a chance to try something new in the creative space. I worked on the kid’s mural, [Animal Express]. My favorite part I worked on would have to be the train,” said 17-year-old Ventura de la Rosa.
Mitthell, 21, said that the program gave her a newfound sense of confidence. “This experience made me believe in myself more. It made me realize that I can do more things than I thought I could and that I don’t have to be automatically perfect to do something,” she said.
Teaching artists Colleen Kong-Savage and Abby Walsh remarked on how the YAs – many of whom have limited art experience – created beautiful displays of artistry.
“Because they’re so open, you’ll ask them to do things and they’ll say ‘I don’t know how to do it’, but they’re willing to try, and that’s the biggest thing,” Kong-Savage said, adding that having a small group of artists allows for a more intimate group dynamic. “We’re hoping to empower people. They’re involved from the beginning, then they come up with the concepts. A lot of this stuff is a combination of many ideas.”
Walsh agreed with Kong-Savage. “Just having the 14 of them is so chill. They’re choosing to be here,” she said. “It’s just about caring enough to keep showing up.”
