Albany Museum of Art’s Teen Art Board mural project in downtown Albany nears completion

ALBANY, Ga. – The Albany Museum of Art is bringing a vibrant transformation to the downtown area.

Work has begun on the Teen Art Board’s mural project in downtown Albany. Scheduled to be complete by Friday, May 24, the mural is being painted on the north exterior wall of “The Cookie Shoppe” on North Jackson Street, facing the Central Library and the Albany Municipal Auditorium.

The museum has previously completed mural exhibitions, but this marks the museum’s first public art mural, allowing the entire community to enjoy their artistic contributions.

“And, this year they wanted to focus on adding color downtown, kind of revitalizing and destigmatizing showing people that it’s a happy place to be. Each gift that the teenagers have given to the community have also included other age groups. So, particularly younger children, they want to showcase that there are career paths in art, that their talent is worth something, that their joy is worth something. And, one of the fun things about having children’s art is most of these kids are not self-conscious yet, their art is so important to them,” said Annie Vanoteghem, Director of Education and Public Programming.

“It’s really exciting to see the mural coming together day by day. When I come in every day and see it more done, it just makes me more excited for when I pass it in the future. I feel like it really brightens up the area when you’re driving by and you see a piece of art. You just have to look at it and it makes you feel good inside. Just to really bring life to downtown Albany and bring hopefully more people down here to see it and just to be around the local business and things,” said Samantha Collins, AMA Teen Art Board member.

“I would say having this mural will bring a lot more people downtown to realize, “This was here and I ever knew it,” because I know I’ve done that when driving to and from here. I would be like, “I never realized we had one of those.” And, it’s just beautiful to look at. And, I can say, “hey, I helped make that,” said Kaitlyn Sokolowski, AMA Teen Art Board member.

“So, once we had all of the drawings, I sketched it out, I sent it to Annie, they approved it, and then I flew down here. I started by sketching everything out with spray paint. And then once we had everything sketched out, the students arrived on Monday, and then they started painting the background and adding all the color to the mural,” said Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Mural Project, Lead Artist.

New York artist, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, whose work was exhibited at the Albany museum of art in the fall of 2023, is leading the painting teams and designed the mural based on drawings by Albany area elementary school students.

“I really, really enjoy working with elementary school students because I just like to see their work blown up. Big mural size. Usually their work is like on a fridge or, you know, on the door of the school or something. And, I personally really like to center their work in my murals and to give them a voice. I really hope that through painting this mural and through having this here in the downtown, people can feel good and the students can learn and feel good when they’re painting it and feel like they have a voice in their community and that they matter,” said Davaro-Comas.

De’Andra Jacobs reporting.

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