A Mural Grows in a Harlem Garde
By Marie Holmes

Climbing up from the subway station at Lexington Avenue and 116^th street, the idea of green space seems very far away indeed. Windows are boarded up, bodega awnings offer scant shade, and a few thin trees sticking up from the sidewalk provide little comfort if you’re looking for something a bit softer than cement.

In these urban areas, community gardens serve as spaces to gather and enjoy simply being outside, pleasures often lost in the daily grind of city life.

Unfortunately, they also suffer from a chronic lack of funds, leaving many gardens in disarray.

This July, students from Summerbridge/ Breakthrough used their artistic talents to make two community gardens and a community center façade in East Harlem more pleasant for neighbors that look at them every day.

The students, middle schoolers attending a tuition-free summer program at the Town School in which they take classes taught by high-school and college students, met with Gustavo Asto of SmartWorks, an arts education service group, to plan the mural they’ve painted in the Block Association Community Garden on East 116^th Street. Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot, local hardware shops and Materials for the Arts, a division of the N.Y.C. Sanitation Department, donated the supplies, while Met Food Markets provided snacks.

“We told them this is a community garden,” says Asto, “and brainstormed about what that means,” discussing concepts ranging from garden vegetables to fertility symbols. Asto joined a number of student drawings into a final design, which features gushing water and flowers growing against a brightly colored background. Modifications and additions came along the way. One student began painting smaller decorative flowers, and others followed suit; another noticed that a curling vine looked like the letter “s,” and a spot for the Summerbridge logo was found.

“It’s very much the artistic process,” comments Asto. “[The primed wall] is really unimpressive the first day.”

The students admit that they had their doubts. “At first I thought it was going to be ugly,” says 7^th grader Elizabeth Mejia. She now thinks that neighborhood residents will like the mural, “because I enjoy looking at it.” During the first steps, recalls 7^th grader Jennifer Chicon, “it feels like you’re wasting your time.” Examining the finished product, however, she says, “it looks colorful and it looks real, too.”

“[The concept of] finishing is often a difficult thing for kids this age,” observes Asto. Painting a mural, he believes, helps them develop a sense of responsibility. “It’s often one of the major things they’ve accomplished in their young lives,” he notes. “Hopefully, that sense of completion will continue with them.”

“They’re learning that they’re doing something for the community,” adds Summerbridge teacher and Barnard student Joana Yip. “That in itself is a learning experience for them. When people walk by down the street and they say, ‘Wow, you’re doing something really nice,’ that’s when it clicks.”

Despite the challenges of the long process and hours spent painting in the summer heat, 7^th grader Jenna Perez says that she had “lots of fun.”

“It was fun ‘cause actually I like getting paint on my face,” volunteers Jhana Meyers. “Gustavo, he said my [paint-covered] shirt looked pretty.”#

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