Sixteen visual art students from the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts group at Culver City High School were selected this fall to participate in an 11-week artist-in-residency program sponsored by Front and Center in association with Center Theatre Group.
On Thursday, AVPA art students will be displaying portraits at Center Theatre Group’s costume and prop shop in Boyle Heights, at 2856 E. 11th St.
Students will create a public art piece for permanent viewing. Their original artwork will be displayed during a special reading of “Emma & The Suzies” with the playwright, Anthony Aguilar.
This free event begins at 5:15.
Artist and Center Theatre Group set designer Janne Larsen has returned for the 6th year to work alongside AVPA artists to create portraits based on the script Emma & The Suzies by contemporary playwright Anthony Aguilar.
AVPA art students were given the opportunity to immerse themselves into the deep culture living within Boyle Heights, and see the artwork that is part of the history of the city.
Before touring Boyle Heights, where the play Emma & the Suzies takes place, AVPA art students were given the chance to visit Center Theatre Group’s costume and prop shop in Boyle Heights.
Escorted around the work area, students were able to see several artists creating props and costumes for upcoming projects.
To their amazement, they saw all of the costumes used in a recent CTG production, Chavez Ravine. Emily Shin, an 11th grade AVPA artist, explains, “It was interesting to see the behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t get shown in the actual play. Such a unique place.”
Freshman AVPA artist Vanessa Harding, was delighted that “Center Theatre Group is allowing art students from AVPA to see what goes into the making of a play. We not only get to understand the writing process and have discussions with the playwright, but also see the steps taken for making costumes, props, and sets. This program is an amazing way to see different aspects of the art world and theatre, while portraying and relating it back to ourselves and our own art which, eventually, will be made into a public art piece.”
Though the students would have been happy to get lost within the realm of costume design, they left for the streets of Boyle Heights to view murals that would tie into their project.
Sidewalks were made narrow from the gathering of friends and family, the sense of community was remarkable. The first stop on the tour was across the street from Evergreen Cemetery to see Rescate, an 8’x15’ acrylic mural painted by John Zender Estrada in 1994. Recently restored to its vibrant colors, the mural is illustrated “to educate the community of the cultural significance of Cesar Chavez.”
With three more acrylic murals left to see, Ms. Janne led her students over to see The Greatest Love by Paul Botello in 1992, which is a 13’x50’ religious mural. Upon closer inspection, students noticed the intricate brush strokes and attention to detail. However, when the students went across the street, they saw the different components that incorporated science, religion, and human life. Only a crosswalk away, students encountered a 17’x80’mural by the East Los Streetscapers, a group of artists that included Botello, called Corrido De Boyle Heights. Corrido means a Mexican ballad against oppression. The gigantic mural encompassed several aspects of Mexican culture and how it is either changed or has remained the same over the years. The mural showed images of people in different circumstances, such as a newlywed couple dancing to music, a family playing soccer in front of a house, a man and woman feasting around a table, and paintings of money and cars. Jubilant and bright, the people in the mural are depicted in ways that portray a sense of triumph and celebration against the injustice that they and their ancestors experienced.
Wrapping up the field trip, Ms. Janne led her students to their last mural of the day, Resurrection of the Green Planet by Ernesto de la Loza. Though the painting consisted mostly of nature, it included what could be ass an elder passing on her information and knowledge to a boy or girl.
Painted in rich colors, the mural tied together gushing water, blooming flowers, setting skies, and beaming rays of sunlight. The mural emphasized the significance and beauty that can come from taking care of the earth.
Walking around and observing the murals in person allowed AVPA art students a deeper understanding of the community that exists in Boyle Heights.
See avpa.org
