YSU, Lit Youngstown Partner on Andrews Ave. Mural

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Thanks to a grant from the Raymond John Wean Foundation, Youngstown State University and Lit Youngstown will install a mural along Andrews Avenue just off the university campus.

The mural will be designed by students in art professor Dragana Crnjak’s special topics course on creating public art. Aiding in its development are Youngstown CityScape and the Andrews Avenue Business Group.

“In this class, students will learn about selecting sites and ameliorating conditions, engaging the public and following all legal and creative steps for installing such works,” Crnjak said in a statement.

The mural will include a ribbon of memories written by residents and visitors to downtown Youngstown.Cherise Benton, Lit Youngstown board member, said the project will reflect the memories of people of many ages and experiences.

“This isn’t a ‘good vibes only’ space; it’s an honest impressions space,” Benton said. “We hope that everyone who sees the mural will relate to at least one of the memories. We want to acknowledge Youngstown’s histories and celebrate the people who are making it what it is now and what it will be in the future.”

Memories can be submitted to Lit Youngstown by visiting LitYoungstown.org and clicking “Send Us Your Memories.”

David W. Jones, chairman of Fireline Inc., said the Andrews Avenue industrial corridor “has long had a neglected wall which is the perfect place for a mural. Youngstown has a great talent pool filled with artists. Seeing a mural emerge will be a wonderful thing.”

The mural is planned to be developed in late summer and will be “essential in fall and spring semesters of the 2020-21 academic year, depending on the course of the coronavirus,” Crnjak said.

Source: Youngstown State University

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.