The Dearborn Community Fund sponsored Pockets of Perception We Are One Community mural, a work-in-progress, takes shape on the Blick Art Materials store, 14339 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn. The mural is being created by high school students and a past-participant college student, under the direction of artist and teacher Sunshine Durant and with the artistic collaboration of mural artist Zach Curtis.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The Blick Art Materials Building is bursting with color as the latest Dearborn Community Fund-sponsored Pockets of Perception mural comes to life on the store’s west wall, along Schlaff Street.
The project, under the direction of teacher and artist Sunshine Durant, and with the help of senior advisor Bob Curtis and with the artistic collaboration of mural artist Zach Curtis of Pontiac, is being created by Wayne State University art student Amar Haidar of Dearborn, a past POP participant, and Dearborn teens Avery Andrews, Steelie Dowgiallo, Jack Durant, Wijdan Alghouli, Danya Jamalaldin and Elissar Atoui, and Sonte Curtis of Inkster, Maren Kerr of Allen Park and Madeline Stanczak of Plymouth.
“The POP project is an acronym for Pockets of Perception – We Are One Community,” Sunshine Durant said. “It is a community that focuses on young people, encouraging multicultural understanding, while cultivating their creativity and investment in the community through the creation of public art.”
She said the mural should be done by Aug. 6, weather permitting.
Durant said each of the young artists receives a $500 stipend for their participation in the nine hours a week, six-week project, which meets on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“They love it,” Durant said. “They are so happy to be out of their house and in the community and doing stuff with other children, and they are super-excited and want to stay longer. I have never had this much excitement working with the kids, ever.”
She said Zach Curtis is teaching the students how to use spray paint on murals as he mentors them.
“This is so inspiring for me, seeing how the community reacts and seeing how the kids react,” Durant said. “I love giving back to the community this way, and this brought me out of the COVID, too.”
EmmaJean Woodyard, executive director of the Dearborn Community Fund, said the mural is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. Fund, the Koch Family Foundation, Robert W. Curtis, I. Osborne and other community members, and is a project of the Dearborn Community Fund.
She said it is amazing to watch the process evolve and watch the teens learn to work together as a team.
“While it is hard work, the fun part is where they get to see their design, their plan, come to life, in living color,” Woodyard said.
She said Zach Curtis has been working with the teens.
“He’s a visiting artist who shares his knowledge, and works with them,” Woodyard said.
She said they discovered that the glazed bricks on the Blick Building had to be treated with a special primer, which added to the cost of the mural.
Woodyard said Raymond Stanczak, also known as artist Eno Laget, did some workshops with the students to teach them stenciling and design.
“To watch the whole process, from the first day when they came in, and they are all separated, and all looking down at their hands, and to see, two weeks later, where they have really come together and come to consensus, it’s a real team,” she said.
Woodyard said Haidar has been an asset as well.
“We find that kids who have been on past teams, if they have a chance to come back and do something, they want to come back,” she said. “It’s a good experience for them.”