Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Arts & Extras: Teens' mural to be displayed at Center in the Square
An abstract by participants in Roanoke Youth Art Connections will be officially unveiled Thursday.
JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times
Steve Schroeder hangs part of a mural created by Elijah Dunbar, Sonny McGill and Jayshaun Smith in the Center in the Square garage in downtown Roanoke.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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Roanoke will soon be seeing a number of public artworks created by teenagers.
Actually, the first of these is already in place. Last week, a fiberboard mural designed and painted by three teenage boys was mounted on the wall in the Center in the Square garage.
The mural, an abstract that evokes aquatic imagery, was created by Elijah Dunbar, Sonny McGill and Jayshaun Smith under the supervision of Roanoke artist Ed Dolinger. They are the first participants in Roanoke Youth Art Connections, a program founded by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge to provide employment, training and creative outlets for at-risk youth.
The teens will be at the mural's official unveiling Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the second-floor gallery of Center in the Square as part of downtown Roanoke's monthly Art By Night event.
Laura Rawlings, executive director of Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, modeled the program after the Youth Artworks program in Reno, Nev.
Getting the funding took time, but once that was in place, the $4,000 project moved quickly.
Though Dolinger joked, "I had a full head of hair when we started."
The work began in mid-July at Dialog, Dolinger's studio on Kirk Avenue. He, his assistant, Hollins University art major Tiffany Robinete, and the three teenagers worked on the design.
The city then allowed the group to paint the mural pieces in an empty space in the Roanoke City Market Building.
Rhonda Hale, arts education director for the council, said that though the teens had to give presentations detailing their design ideas, they were not given a directive as to what they should create. "We want this to be really just an expression from them."
Hale said the project was sponsored by the Roanoke Arts Commission, the city of Roanoke, Bank of America, ITT Night Vision and the Sam and Marion Golden Helping Hand Foundation.
"This is the first one," Dolinger said, "and there will be more with different groups of kids."
The Arts Council has already announced what the next Roanoke Youth Art Connections project will be -- temporary window murals to be shown in the empty retail spaces in the market building until the city's planned renovations start.
