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At the courthouse, art with a message

Mural depicts fresh start for young men

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Artist and Fresh StART participant Alejandro Reyes-Calderon, 17, of Silver Spring shakes hands with Circuit Court Judge Marielsa Bernard as his mother, Rosa Calderon, looks on after the unveiling of a mural at the county Judicial Center in Rockville. The Latin American Youth Center produced the artwork, titled ‘‘Youth Ascending the Stairs.”

Several members of the community, artists, judges and county workers got a glimpse of the mural during an unveiling Oct. 11.

Titled ‘‘Youth Ascending a Staircase,” the mural was created this past summer by 10 adjudicated young men who participated in the Fresh StART program, an arts, job-readiness and leadership development program offered by the Latin American Youth Center’s Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers.

As part of the program, the 14- to 20-year old participants — with the help of muralist Joey Tomassoni — designed, planned, sketched, painted and installed the giant mural.

Tomassoni said they worked on the artwork four afternoons a week, beginning in July and finishing in September.

Standing before the large, excited crowd, Judge Ann S. Harrington, Circuit Court administrative judge, expressed her excitement over the new mural.

‘‘The court was very excited to be part of this project because the courthouse really is a symbol for the community and it’s a public building,” she said. ‘‘People come here for very important reasons; sometimes it’s very happy — they’re coming here to get married — they come here for personal business and they also come here for adjudication of disputes in their lives. So, when we had the opportunity to have a piece of art created for the courthouse by adjudicated youths who wanted to give something back to their community and to the system, we were extremely excited and very happy to work with them.”

After some more words and thoughts from those who had been involved in the creation of the mural, four of the youth artists and Tomassoni descended the staircase — or rather, the escalator — to unveil ‘‘Youth Ascending a Staircase.”

And as the maroon curtain was tugged away, the crowd gained a full view of a canvas several feet tall filled with squares of vibrant blue and violet and warm brown hues. Although somewhat abstract in style, one could make out six faces, tilting their heads towards the sky and, perhaps, a new beginning.

The title of the mural is a take-off of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘‘Nude Descending a Staircase,” Tomassoni said.

‘‘The concept is very simple; it’s a group of youth rising together to ascend this staircase, which, you know, could act as a metaphor for life and the trials they might face,” he said. ‘‘The thing is that they have to overcome and it’s also this idea of them working together with the community to overcome those trials.”

Basking in the glow of thunderous applause, Julio Morales, a 19-year-old resident of Gaithersburg who worked on the mural, said he knows all about trials and tribulations.

‘‘I got into some trouble with the law and it was a pretty bad experience,” he said. ‘‘My parents wanted to help me out. They were being really supportive and they just wanted me to have a good life, you know, they wanted me to change and do something positive.”

Morales said his mother took him for a meeting with Latin American Youth Center’s Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers to discuss obtaining his GED, and it was at that point that Janelle Cauthen, Latin American Youth Center case manager, asked him if he would like to participate in the Fresh StART program. He agreed to it, noting that he has always loved to draw and thought that the program would help him further develop his skills.

‘‘It was pretty weird,” Morales said. ‘‘I had never experienced anything like this before with such a large group of people, but I enjoyed working on it.”

‘‘It feels pretty good to see it [hanging here] because we worked so hard as a team and put a lot of effort into it,” he added.

Morales said now that the mural is done, he would continue to pursue his GED and participate in the Latin American Youth Center programs.

As Latin American Youth Center Managing Director Luisa Montero watched the young artists receive praise from some of the judges, she said this is the first year that the center has offered the Fresh StART program.

Now that she has seen the finished product, Montero said she could not think of a more appropriate place for the mural to hang.

‘‘It’s right below the staircase — or actually, the escalators — and it’s called ‘Youth Ascending a Staircase,’ she said. ‘‘It’s a wonderful empty wall that is now filled with this positive image.”

Cauthen, who spent a lot of time with the youths while they worked on the mural, said she was also impressed with the finished work of art.

‘‘It’s exhilarating,” she said. ‘‘I’m so happy for them because when you see their faces when they saw the mural... I wasn’t actually looking at the mural; I was looking at the kids to let them know that I wanted to see what their faces would show. I know they were happy that it was finished and completed, and now they’re actually getting that validation from everybody else that they did a good job.”

Aside from giving the participants a chance to positively express themselves, Cauthen said the mural also benefited the group in other ways.

‘‘It was definitely a lot of change for a lot of the guys,” she said. ‘‘When they came in, a lot of them were belligerent and I don’t want to say ignorant, but they kind of were ignorant to other people’s plights. Like, even if someone else came in and they were having a bad day, they didn’t want to recognize that someone else was having a bad day — they only focused on themselves.

‘‘But at the end of the program, they were concerned about their co-workers — they were understanding, they were asking questions and they all worked together eventually at the end... it was a good change and it was all positive,” she added.

The Fresh StART Summer Mural Project was funded by the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families and the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development’s Workforce Services.

Community partners for the project included Montgomery County Department of Juvenile Services; Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families; Choice Program of the Shriver Center, UMBC; the Institute for Family Center Services; and Class Acts Arts.