Abiba Biao Photos.
The mural towered over Trumbull Street, tall enough to stop a passerby in their tracks. On the surface, a winding river flowed upstream, leading past the skyline of the Elm City into a purple sky. In the foreground, tree branches stretched their arms forward, proudly sporting cherry blossoms.
A few petals floated down toward the bottom of the canvas, leading viewers towards a pair of cupped hands in the right hand corner. They held a variety of neighborhood treasures the Elm City has to offer.
On a recent Friday evening, over two dozen New Haveners gathered to celebrate “Every Piece is Part of the Whole,” the culmination of the 2024 Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP) at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA).
The program matches high schooler students with professional artists, with the hope that they can hone their artistic skills and receive close mentorship. This year, summer apprentices worked with New Haven native and Boston-based artist Destiny Palmer, who was herself a summer apprentice at Artspace from 2003 to 2005.
This year’s cohort featured 11 high schoolers from New Haven and several neighboring towns. In addition to working on the collective mural, participants also worked on smaller, individual murals that they painted on lawn signs. The work will remain on view at 51 Trumbull St. through the fall.
The exhibition also served as a tribute to late artist and prominent Westville resident Semi Semi-Dikoko, an avid proponent of SAP while it was run through Artspace New Haven. Before his death in 2022, Semi-Dikoko was the board vice president at Artspace and was involved in other nonprofits such as Friends of Edgewood Park and the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance.
“We are honoring his friendship and his legacy by dedicating this year's program to him,” said ECOCA Board ChairHelen Kauder in a speech to the crowd.
That sense of history and legacy permeated the exhibition, from the large group mural to the small lawn signs that still dot the front of the building.
To gather potential mural ideas, Palmer and her assistant, Perla Mabel, took apprentices on several public art fields trips, traveling to see murals created under Colorful Bridgeport and through the 20th-century Work Progress Administration (WPA). New Haven has several of these murals, including Karl Anderson’s 1939 “Pursuit of the Regicides” in the Westville Post Office.
Summer apprentices first drafted their mural concepts through online illustration, as Palmer encouraged each student to think of their own designs for the mural. From there, the students brainstormed and worked in three different groups and finally converged as a whole, incorporating each SAP student’s idea in triangular segments of the mural.
Each of the students got to customize their segment using acrylic paint. As a result, some of the triangles featured New Haven landmarks and others had abstracted designs.
While Palmer joked that Mother Nature had a vendetta—an especially wet summer did not allow the group to paint outside as much as she had hoped, particularly through the season’s downpours— the crew pushed through, using indoor space provided at NXTHVN at 169 Henry St.
“This mural, like most murals, is outside and so you're just playing around with the elements,” Palmer said. “If it's raining, you can't paint. If it's too hot, then it's just grueling to paint.”
Solace Khuc and Merlin Shallow.
Gathered on ECOCA’s lawn were students Solace Khuc and Merlin Shallow, both soaking in the novelty of seeing their work on display. Since first meeting at ACES Education Center for the Arts (ECA) Shallow and Khuc have formed a strong friendship and navigated the program together.
Shallow, a newly minted graduate of ECA and Shelton High School, is currently taking a gap year before enrolling at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the program, they chose to highlight the intersection of food and community, a connection they’ve experienced in their own life and have grown to appreciate.
“I like expressing like or featuring mundane jubilation in my work, and that kind of stuff,” they said, pointing to a sign with blue and turquoise streaked with yellow, against a background of smiling neighbors and friends.. “Food and friends are really important to me.”
While they enjoyed the process, Shallow added that it was no easy task. They had to learn how to paint with their left hand after sustaining an overuse injury on their right while working on a personal mural for their senior capstone project. After a “really stressful environment” senior year, the SAP allowed them to get back into the art form under a supportive and nurturing environment.
Standing next to Shallow’s mural was Khuc’s, filled with bright green colors and a blossoming flower with pink petals in the middle. Khuc said that their inspiration was to emphasize community gardening and connection to nature. Khuc, a graduate of Orville H. Platt High School in Meriden, attributed collaboration and sharing ideas with others to helping with the artistry process.
“It really helps to like, talk to other artists because then you just learn from them,” they said. “And it's like more fun that way because then you're not doing all by yourself.”
Cheering in the crowd was Rebecca LeQuire, who came to support her former student, David Coardes.
LeQuire, who met Coardes while teaching at James Hillhouse High School, is now leaving after three years to teach at Achievement First Amistad High School in the fall. Despite her departure from Hillhouse, her love and support for her students remains.
LeQuire gushed about Coardes' ability and remarked on his growth throughout the years, and strong gravitation towards painting.
“He's amazing,” she said. “He's grown so much, but it's all on his dedication … When he holds a paintbrush, he gets all giddy. You put a roller in his hand and he's ready to go.”
Coardes, a rising senior at Hillhouse, has taken up many creative endeavors throughout his high school career, from helping install murals at “The Shack” and at school to painting LeQuire’s front porch. To him, seizing opportunities to make art was and is important
“I used to be into art in middle school, but the curriculum was never really expanded enough for me, so when I got to high school, I expanded that curriculum even more,” he said.
Sarah Ngongi.
Coardes' individual mural featured a globe alluding to notable New Haven amenities from Frank Pepe's Pizza to the iconic cherry blossoms at Wooster Square Park. Underneath the cherry trees reads text that says “Community = Unity” a sentiment that he said he felt throughout the apprenticeship program.
Attending the exhibition in honor of Semi-Dikoko was his niece, Sarah Ngogni. An artist herself, Ngongi attributed her uncles support to chasing her creative ventures like painting and sowing, which she has been doing for almost a decade.
“He was a huge advocate for art funding throughout the city of New Haven. And so, seeing that, in fact, seeing his legacy live on has truly been rewarding,” she said. “I'm grateful. I'm grateful for it all. It's very emotional.”