Utica’s new mural could be catalyst for empowerment
Alumni Jared Diaz returned to Pratt Munson recently to host an open forum for the “One World Garden” public art project.
The mural, funded by Rust2Green, will be located outside the Utica Dance building at 324 Genesee Street.
At the event, Diaz presented a digital rendering of the concept plan and then opened the floor up for public discourse. The theme is meant to reimagine city recreation with nature as the driving motif, he said.
According to Rust2Green Treasurer Lynne Mishalanie, the project started as a park proposal, designed by landscape architecture students at Cornell University, that never came to fruition.
The Oneida Square Arts District Association (OSADA) board said they felt the project was in good hands, describing it as “impressive, articulate, and accomplished.”
“With the understanding that Utica represents a vast range of people from diverse backgrounds, this project does not aim to create a broad or simplified vision of the community,” Diaz said. “Instead, this mural has room for individual contributions to shine.”
BIPOC perspective
Diaz is a second-generation Dominican artist, born and based in New York City. After earning his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2017 he went on to manage and execute the construction of over 2,000 murals nationwide.
Despite his experience with figuration and portraiture, he admitted its mural making has driven him to speak more and collaborate with others.
“When one situates themselves in alignment with relationships rooted in similar values, and ambition-based initiatives, the universe tends to conspire in their favor,” he claimed.
Diaz referred to himself as an “institutional change maker.” As project manager for Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Public Art and Civic Engagement Initiative he’s forged collaborations with other BIPOC artists to help them achieve their goals. Diaz noted the importance of being a BIPOC artist with agency over the built environment.
“I see the architecture of systemic racism and inequality around us as a visual lyrically,” he said. “The more I’ve studied history I’ve learned what visuals infer about an experience. As a muralist I can choose to privilege and underprivileged, because I have the agency to do so. And sometimes the final result is like a well-deserved love song. There’s a beauty in acknowledging the unsung that’s fundamentally equitable.
Fresh approach
In response to the death of Brianna Taylor in March 2020, Diaz and his colleagues began to contemplate the best way to channel public momentum into art. Later that year, June 2020, when George Floyd was murdered they decided there was far too much urgency to wait any longer and launched their “I Am” mural series, Diaz explained.
The series spotlighted a Black man at a sanitation workers strike in 1968 with a sign around his neck that read: “I am a man.” The first mural was installed in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, the second in West Louisville.
Diaz said after the series wrapped up his team decided to lean into social change, through the lens of specific individuals.
In 2021, the face of Henrietta Helm – one of the first Black students to attend public school in the city and a celebrated educator – was painted to loom over downtown Louisville. After nine months of planning, community dialogues, and execution of the 1,500square-foot mural-monument, the project was complete.
“There’s power in elevating her story,
quite literally, 14 stories high in the sky,” said Diaz. “We started out looking through archived photos and discussing them with locals. We asked the community what they felt Henrietta’s life story implied. With her legacy as an educator, one resident suggested we start a seed fund for a scholarship in her name.”
Taking that into consideration a scholarship was formed to aid Black women and femme educators enrolled in University of Louisville’s Teacher Residency Program.
“So we have cultural equity, uplifting a person of color who was a change maker in her community, and actually equity, mobilizing resources with a cause in mind,” Diaz acknowledged.
People, first
By keeping the public involved, Diaz said public reception has been overwhelmingly positive, across the board. Nonetheless, anti-graffiti coating is applied to all his mural’s to prevent tagging.
“I’m very grateful that through my career I’ve never seen a single pencil, sharpie, crayon, or spray on any of the murals I’ve created,” said Diaz. “There’s something that happens when you approach projects with sincerity and stay dedicated to a vision that actually matters to the public you’re serving. Your work is affirmed by how it’s cared for by the community.”
During the Q&A portion of the event President and CEO of the Munson Museum of Art, Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio, brought up how difficult it was for people to adjust to the replacement of the Sunburst mural.
In response, Diaz pointed out he’s not afraid to learn into criticism but hopes to avoid doing so by involving the public in the decision-making process.
“Since public art can be so singular, we tend to load it with a lot of expectations,” Diaz said. “That being said, I understand that which is why I work the way that I do. I came here to command a response so I can leverage expectations and move this society forward. Criticism presents itself as a challenge and I like to lean into the difficulty. I don’t want everyone to feel completely comfortable; if we’re comfortable we aren’t doing things right.”
What can Utica expect?
The Genesee Street mural will bring in photo realistic and romantic elements, slightly inspired by the Thomas Cole exhibit on display at the Munson Museum of Art, Diaz said.
“The nature in the built environment – the sky above the roof and the trees bordering the parking lot – tie into the mural, making it appear as a continuation. And, the figures in the foreground offer an opportunity for individual leaders to be spotlighted.”
During the design process Diaz said he considered three main elements: interiority, exteriority, and allegory.
“I started off thinking about interiority, what a gathering space would look like if we reconstructed parts of the city to communal intimacy. As well as exteriority, what Utica as a larger landscape would look like if it were augmented to support our relationship to nature and all individuals. I’m also interested in allegory and I saw this as an opportunity to explore ourselves individually, familiarly, communally, and ancestrally using nature as the prompt.”
In regards to next steps, Diaz said the project is currently in phase one, gathering public input. Moving into phase two he will conduct practical workshops at Munson to inform the final design.
Pre-production and production will follow shortly after. Diaz said he intends to have a final rendering by March, begin production in April, and complete the execution in June.