Albany Museum of Art’s Teen Art Board begins downtown mural project

ALBANY – Students from the Albany Museum of Art’s Teen Art Board were hard at work Monday morning, painting a mural on the north exterior wall of The Cookie Shoppe at 115 N. Jackson St. in downtown Albany.

Each school year, the Teen Art Board completes a project for the Albany community with a focus on youths. In fall 2023, the board began brainstorming the idea of a downtown mural.

Annie Vanoteghem, the AMA’s education and public programming director, said the students wanted to aid in revitalizing Albany’s downtown.

“Their idea was … to make it a little more colorful and more of a destination area … to encourage more businesses to come down and to build a more thriving community,” she said.

Brianna McCoy, the Teen Art Board president, said the group wanted to build sustainability in the community through art.

“We wanted to bring something to our downtown area,” the 17-year-old said. “We wanted to have it grow.”

McCoy said the students talked about how there is not much in Albany’s downtown to attract young people, and many parents are apprehensive to have their children downtown. She said the group asked, "What can we do to make it better?”

“Downtown is the heart of Albany,” she said. “So, it’s a community problem … that we can help with by way of art.”

Around the time the art board was brainstorming, New York-based artist Ramiro Davaro-Comas was in Albany, presenting his “Familias” exhibit at the AMA. Davaro-Comas works extensively on youth-created community murals. He’s traveled as far as Mexico to help young people paint murals.

McCoy said when the students met Davaro-Comas and heard about his work, they knew they wanted to work with him to complete a mural downtown.

“The stars really aligned,” she said. “So, we pitched … and he was down for it. He said, ‘Figure out a way to make me come down there, and we’ll do it.’”

While the students were hard at work, spray painting and hand painting colorful designs onto the wall of The Cookie Shoppe Monday, they put in even more difficult work organizing the project – finding community donors to raise money for the project and to bring Davaro-Comas back.

Vanoteghem said a major takeaway for the students is just how much work goes into organizing an extensive art project like this. Since the fall, the students raised $7,000 of their $10,000 goal for the project.

McCoy said all of their donors wanted to see something happen downtown and believed the students could do it.

Davaro-Comas said a mural project with the AMA had been in the works for some time.

“I really enjoyed being in Albany when I came for the exhibit, and I really love the community here,” he said.

Davaro-Comas said the Teen Art Board quickly grasped the importance of public art within a community.

“They saw the big picture, and they understood that public art is really, really powerful,” he said. “It can tell a story, and it can really bring the community together. As you've seen, we're all here painting together.”

Davaro-Comas said his main driver was working with the students, letting them know that art is a viable career path.

“I think it's important to pass on knowledge and to have more people, especially young people, know that this can be a career and know that they're supported if they want to go into the arts, or be creative for a day to help out the community,” he said.

The mural was designed by elementary school kids. Vanoteghem said in January the AMA held a workshop where about 50 to 60 kids came to illustrate images based on Albany’s community.

“They talked to them about symbols and things that make us smile and represent Albany, and (the students) drew these things,” she said.

Davaro-Comas had the task of sorting through nearly 200 images to choose what would appear on the wall. The mural has colorful images of rainbows, turtles, ice cream, silhouettes of black women and phrases like “stay positive.”

Davaro-Comas said he wants the young artists to feel that their art is taken seriously.

“They’re centered in a downtown project, and they have a voice,” he said. “Usually a lot of these drawings end up on a teacher’s board or refrigerators, not on a giant wall. And that’s really important to me because you see their reactions.

McCoy said the kids can look back at the mural and feel proud to see their work displayed there.

Business was going as usual during a busy lunch time in The Cookie Shoppe as the Teen Art Board took a lunch break, leaving their paints and lifts outside.

Mona Qaqish, owner of the Cookie Shoppe, said the mural is great. She agreed to the project after the Teen Art Board and AMA approached her.

“I think it makes the building look nice, and it attracts customers,” Qaqish said.

The group will work on the mural for the rest of the week until it’s completed. Davaro-Comas will give a presentation at the AMA Thursday at 5:30 p.m. on the idea behind the mural project and the importance of public art. The Teen Art Board also will be recognized for their work over the last year. The event is free and open to the public.