A mural created by students in the freshman Foundation Drawing class taught by adjunct assistant professor and Distinguished Teaching Award winner Andrew Lenaghan this spring was recently installed outside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), where it is being displayed this summer on BBG fencing located at Empire Boulevard and Flatbush Avenue. The mural is a collaborative piece that links together drawings that were inspired by works and vistas seen by the students on field trips the class made to the Brooklyn Museum and Prospect Park.
Once the piece was completed, the students and Lenaghan searched for a site to display it and worked successfully with the BBG in order to proceed with the temporary installation of the mural, which is 18 inches high and 60 feet long, and features drawings made with black-and-white conte on gray paper.
“What I enjoyed the most about the collaborative mural was that Professor Lenaghan encouraged us to explore the wider community around us, and also forge connections within the personal community of our class,” said Rina Wang (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18). “I'm really proud to see our efforts for the mural vision come to fruition, displayed outside a historic institution such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where thousands of people can pass by to admire art for, and about, the community. “
A number of additional drawings completed by students on the field trips are also on display on either side of the mural. They feature views of Prospect Park Lake, Waterfall, and Grand Army Plaza, as well as Rodin sculptures and Charles Cary Rumsey’s The Dying Indian statue at the Brooklyn Museum. The mural will be on display for one to two months.
The participating students are: Diana Tsoy (B.I.D. ’18), Valentina Vergara (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Royraj Vichaidit (B.F.A. Digital Arts ’18), Rina Wang (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Siqi Yu (B.F.A. Interior Design ’18), Ping Chien Chang (B.F.A. Interior Design ’18), Taeyoung Chang (B.I.D. ’18), Joshua Dietz (B.F.A. Fine Arts’18), Danielle Eshkar (B.I.D. ’18), Maya Filmeridis (B.F.A. Drawing ’18), Alyssa Klimo (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Jacob Lemon (B.I.D. ’18), Jack Nimmo (B.I.D. ’18), Sara O'Donnell (B.F.A. Fine Arts ’18), Raghav Pahuja (B.F.A. Interior Design ’18), Minnie Park (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Tho Pham (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Danielle Singer (B.F.A. Communications Design ’18), Deniz Yalcin (B.I.D. ’18) and Mitchell Wood (B.F.A. Film/Video ’18).
Image: Freshman Foundation class, Collaborative Chain Drawing (detail), 2015, black-and-white conte on gray paper, 1 1/2 x 60 feet.