After months of extensive planning, fundraising and painting, “Colors of Music,” a community art mural on Garner Street, was unveiled last last month.
A portion of the street was closed down on April 29 to showcase the 44-foot mural that more than 400 locals artists, aged 3- to 74-years-old, helped create.
The mural was created in part by Penn State art education graduate student Natalia Pilato as her master’s thesis. Pilato had previously worked on other community art projects and believed the natural progression of her work lead to teaching others how to do what she does.
“I thought I should teach a class to artists and art students to help them realize there are other things they can do with being an artist and art educator,” she said.
State College resident Kate Branford believes Pilato’s need to share her love of community-based art with the town was a wonderful way to bring area residents together.
“It’s always just fun to be part of the community. All these events bring the community together. The people that have been a part of our community for a long time have a lot to give back in an artistic way and that is exciting to share,” she said.
Pilato began planning for the mural in October through Community Arts Collective. Starting in January, she and her 14 students worked on community fundraising, outreach, presentations and readings. In order to complete the project, Pilato said she demanded a lot of her students, but she explained that many devoted countless hours to the project, much more than she expected.
After asking area adults and children to explain how they visualized music, Pilato and Elody Gyekis, the artist in residence at the Green Drake Gallery in Millheim, spent 140 hours creating the mural template by combining the answers they received with local students’ art creations.
“It is different in that way from our other murals because Elody Gyekis and myself designed the mural using some of these students’ art in the mural itself,” Pilato said.
One of Pilato’s students, junior art education and ceramics BFA Samantha Bachman worked throughout the semester on community outreach and mural touch-up. After community members would come and fill in the “paint-by-number” mural, she worked to make sure lines were crisp and smooth. But for Bachman, the greatest part of the mural creation was brought so many different community members together.
“It’s so many people that you may never even see, but they are all coming together and joining. Even with the painting of the mural, it just makes everyone feel like they’re involved and taking a step towards making the community a brighter place,” she said.
Bachman and Pilato’s 13 other students will each complete an artistic reflection, which will be on display at the State College Municipal Building through the end of May.
Before the tarps were finally dropped to reveal the completed mural, Pilato, along with others from the State College community gave brief speeches pertaining to the mural and community art.
Mayor Elizabeth Goreham spoke to the crowd about how the creation of “Colors of Music” brought the community together as a whole.
“A lot of students and community members connect to each other and our area. That’s the real purpose of the mural and the beauty of it. Art in itself really enhances civilization. We forget that too quickly,” Goreham said.
“Here is the evidence of that art that will bring people downtown and inspire us. Our town is wonderful, in part, because of the passion for it, as evidence by the people who worked on this mural.”
