PHOTOS: Jersey City Youth Complete 100-Foot Mural

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Jersey City's Mural Arts Youth Summer Program left a 100-foot mark on the city this summer with the latest mural installation at Ferris High School.

A mural portraying Jersey City's 22 sister cities was done by the Jersey City Mural Arts Youth Summer Program, consisting of artists between 14-24. The group was under the mentorship and creative direction of Duda Penteado, a fine artist and Art Coordinator Maya Sanders.

While the hands-on art of the project took its fair share of time, the heavily lifting came from the planning and research coordinated in the project. The artists held a series of virtual conversations with representatives from the international sister cities as part of the mural design creation process. The young artists were then led by professional mural artists, where they were given step-by-step instruction on public art techniques.

"It's a very collaborative job and for them as their first time doing this, they're learning how to use the cans," Sanders said, "I see how they problem-solve — this is their entire design, they came up with what they wanted to express from each country."

The program has been running seven-years strong, and Penteado said it's not only a great way to bring murals and street art to the city, but it's a professional stepping stone for young artists.

"This is probably the best youth mural program in the state of New Jersey," Penteado said, "They are commissioned to work with us together — we designed this program to give them something I never had for myself."

Jersey City has been putting its best work forward, investing and placing arts programs on the center stage, hoping to bill itself as the arts and culture hub across the Hudson. Mayor Steven Fulop mentioned the city's various investing efforts in the arts including the incoming Pompidou Center to Journal Square as well as the $72 million renovation of the Lowes theater, an arts incubator space on Morgan Street and the newly implemented arts trust fund.

Aside from the financial investments in the arts, Fulop highlighted that an investment in young artists themselves is key to Jersey City's flourishing as an art hub.

At the end of the day you want to really encourage and help the young artists to be part of this culture and all of the great things that are happening here and you can't start young enough is the reality," Fulop said, "I think it's a tremendous sense of pride that any time they walk by or drive by here they can say 'I did that."

Ysabelle Abis who goes by Bell has been a participant in the program for three years and is about to start her senior year in college as a graphic design major. "Because of this program I was able to get the opportunity to work with a street artist from New York, El Street Art, it opened so many doors for me as an artist," Abis said.

This year's mural sits on the wall of Ferris High School on Christopher Columbus Dr. between Merseles and Brunswick Street. Check out some photos of the artists at work:

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