This mural, created by New Mexico Highlands University staff and students in 2017, was painted on the back of the school’s facilities building. The building is slated to be demolished soon; and the media arts department looks forward to creating a new mural on a different wall next week.
The community is invited to be part of the creation of a new mural at New Mexico Highlands University in the coming days.
Students and staff with the school’s media arts department along with visiting artists Izia Lindsay and Al Díaz are set to begin work on a new mural at the school next week. Members of the community are welcome to come to the media arts’ McCaffrey Historic Trolley Building to partake in free events related to the project, including film screenings about street art and workshops about lettering and graffiti.
Mariah Hausman, chair of media arts and technology as well as professor of visual communications at Highlands, said Lindsay and Díaz, both accomplished artists with a long history of doing street art, will be “injecting some street art and creative energy into our spaces and our classes.”
“These two artists are very generously bringing their talents to spend two weeks with our students,” she said. “That’s really what’s the most amazing thing.”
New York City-based artist Díaz will also be doing a two-person art show in Santa Fe this weekend. Called Parallel Playground, the art show will be a collaboration between Díaz and Douglas Miles.
There will be an opening reception with the artists on Friday, Aug. 16, from 5-7 p.m. at the Obscura Gallery, 225 Delgado St. in Santa Fe.
The Las Vegas community is welcome to partake in the creation of the new mural and learn more about street art next week. There will be a welcome reception for the artists on Monday at the Trolley Building on Monday at 7 p.m. This will be followed by a live mural art observation, during which the artists will project the image of the new mural on the wall where it will be painted.
On Tuesday at 8 p.m., observers from the community will again be welcome to watch the mural’s planning.
A pizza party hosted by JC’s Pizza is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 23. At 11 a.m., members of the community can again watch Lindsay and Díaz as they work on the mural. Food will be served at 12 p.m. This will be followed by a drone workshop, a book and print signing and mural painting demonstrations. A film, “Wall Writers,” will be shown at 7:30 p.m.
Observers to the creation of the mural will again be welcomed Saturday, Aug. 24 from 6-8 p.m. A film documentary, “Style Wars,” will be shown at 8 p.m.
On Monday, Aug. 26, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., there will be a black book lettering workshop open to the community.
Hausman said an endowment through the NMHU Foundation helped cover the cost not only of next week’s events, but also of hosting the two visiting artists who will create the new mural with the help of select students.
“It’s basically a two-week artists’ residency,” Hausman said. She applied for the funds from the Nina Tesla Ballen Visiting Professorship endowment to make the event happen.
Part of the endowment is that the visiting scholars must work on a theme – in this case, the mural and all things graffiti. Hausman also has the goal of getting as many people involved in the event.
“The aim of this residency is to involve as many people on campus and the community as possible,” Hausman said. Still, the endowment and the mural are tied into Hausman’s special topics graffiti class, which she is currently teaching. The course is an elective, she said, but as a special topics course it is not offered every semester.
“The residency is tied into my class, and enriching that class, but also involving many more people; other classes, other faculty,” Hausman said.
The new mural will come as a replacement to the one painted on the back of the school’s facilities building. That mural was painted by students in 2017 on a wall that faces the media arts’ McCaffrey Historic Trolley Building. However, the facilities building is slated to be demolished soon, Hausman said.
“We added that mural to that building to help beautify the outside of the Trolley Building,” Hausman said. “But all along, the long-term plan that Highlands has had is to clear that area so that you can see the Trolley Building when you’re driving down the street in front of it.”
Hausman said the new mural will be painted on a structure next to the Trolley Building that is currently being used to cover equipment.
“It’s a perfect canvas for a big mural,” Hausman said of the otherwise plain structure.
Hausman was hesitant about publishing an image of what the new mural will look like. However, it will include elements of the Las Vegas landscape – including mountains, plants and animals.
Hausman said the experience of having the guest artists help with the new mural is normal for a department that seeks to expose its students to diversity, but uncommon in that Díaz and Lindsay will be on-site for two weeks interacting with the community.
“Media arts and technology makes a point to bring in as many professionals and outside artists as we can to interact with our students,” Hausman said of the artists’ residency and mural-making event. “It’s part of our departmental culture to expose our students to different artists, different career paths, different kinds of creating works.”
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