AT WAGNER COLLEGE, A PORTRAIT BY MANY ARTISTS
By TEVAH PLATT, Staten Island Advance Staff Writer
GRYMES HILL, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — On one of the bright days that followed last month’s storm, a van full of participants from the Lifestyles for the Disabled program traveled to Grymes Hill to attend, for the first time, a Wagner College art class.
Embarking on a collaborative mural project, they introduced themselves enthusiastically to Wagner’s junior and senior art studio majors, and proceeded to describe the things they see on a typical day at the Willowbrook-based skill-building center that serves about 130 adults with mental disabilities. Art teacher Jenny Toth took notes on the board: Soap in the laundry room. Coffee in the Lifestyles cafe. Crayons on the arts and crafts table.
“I definitely wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Wagner senior Amanda Frechette. “I never worked with people with mental disabilities. At the end of the day, I felt in a really good mood. They really made me smile.”
“I had a blast doing this because it was different, and it was such a nice day,” said Lifestyles program participant Giuseppe Pellecchia. “I made flowers for the mural and a caterpillar.”
Working in pairs, the group spent two days creating a felt mural that captured both the day-to-day iconography of Lifestyles and the extraordinary cheer that the art project evoked.
Students hung the 6-ft. by-10-ft. mural outside of the Lifestyles Cafe last week, covering what had been a blank, chromium oxide green wall with vibrant images of Lifestyles’ greenhouse and garden, its cafe, laundry and woodshop.
After hanging the mural, the artists teamed up for a final art session, cutting and gluing felt self-portraits while enjoying a barbecue at the Lifestyles greenhouse.
A heap of jagged colors at the center of the picnic table united the group.
The Wagner students returned this week to their personal projects, preparing for an end-of-the-semester gallery show.
“Art is something that can be collaborative and can enrich people’s lives,” said Dr. Toth. “This felt more important than anything they’ll do in the gallery.”
Matt Jasinski, of Pittsburg, Penn., left, a junior at Wagner College,
with Giuseppe Pellecchia, a Lifestyles client.
(Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)
Art students, Lifestyle residents make mural
April 15, 2010
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