The long-running “Movable Mural Project” has just wrapped up for a body of Santa Cruz County high school students in the Teen Artes Summer Program. Under the umbrella of Pajaro Valley Arts, 18 students from eight schools started painting the large wood panels last month of their original images under a theme of “nature, community and culture,” said program coordinator and local artist Josefina Rocha.
“We are just getting started on this exciting project and these students are really excited to be a part of this,” Rocha said. “Each of them is getting paid for their efforts with this project.”
On Aug. 10 the panels, titled “The Doors to Watsonville, Our home,” were hung on the exterior walls of Watsonville City Hall facing Main Street.
Watsonville High School senior Ximena Jimenez Santos said she’s glad her school offers a program known as Mosaic.
“You learn about different types of art and it’s taught by Mr. Brown. I’ve been doing this program for three years. And I really like just being able to have an opportunity to create a mural for the city; it’s really a lot of fun and I’m a really big fan of art and we get to paint a mural and we get paid for it.” She added that she has previously taken part in similar group art projects around Watsonville, including Callaghan and Ramsay parks.
Mayra Ruiz Valtierra, teaching artist in the program, said, “We have some really talented students out here. Everyone of them worked on sketches that highlighted their one individual artworks. Then we put them together in one big collaborative piece. We all worked together to help sharpen a vision for the final images; we found common ground.”
The works are slated to be completed and installed on the exterior walls of Watsonville City Hall around the third week of August. A ribbon cutting ceremony is still in the works.
A ribbon cutting to celebrate the installation and give the public a chance to meet the artists was held Aug. 21.
