Photo by Kortney Pham.
UCSB KEEPS ART ALIVE IN ISLA VISTA.
Painted by the Fall class of 2015
Photo by Kortney Pham.
In the streets of Isla Vista lies artwork painted over walls that create a more vivid picture of the square-mile beach town. These murals, however, would not have existed without the creation of INT185UA: Urban Art Workshop. Since the development of the course in Spring 2012, Urban Art Workshop has provided a space for creativity and an opportunity for students to leave their mark on the Isla Vista community. And the best part? It was open to anyone.
Students who enrolled in this course came from different majors and interests, but with the same goal in mind: to make an impact. Each wanted to leave something behind in Isla Vista through art. It was evident that they wanted to make an impact, but none of them realized how much the class would impact them. The Urban Art Workshop has been integral to
the lives of the students who enrolled in it, and it was
finally time to highlight the roots of the course.
The murals began with Kat Frazier. After overhearing that
property owner’s were planning to paint over the murals of a
neighboring community, Kat created her own solution. She
pitched an idea to her Community Housing Office supervisor,
Jenn Birchim, who took initiative on the project. Birchim
reached out to the UCSB Art Department as well as the
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center to develop an art class
that was available to non-art majors. This unique factor
eventually caught Ann Hefferman’s attention, who has been
the head instructor for the course since its second quarter.
Her belief of “creating art as a means of expression for
everyone” helped her develop a teaching style that involves
an exchange of ideas among all student artists which mimics
a real life artist and client relationship.
"murals have always been such an integral part of Isla vista culture and history and we thought we would love to see more
properties add them to their walls."
-Jenn Birchim
A small idea slowly, but surely turned into something bigger. With such a permanent mark on property walls, the course pushed for a strong, intimate relationship between the students (the artists) and the property owners (the clients). The process of the finalizing each mural was far from simple. The course was made of different phases
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that eventually lead to the actual painting process. But first, it was important to get the design officially approved by property owners. The initial class meeting consisted of a visit to the mural site while discussing various criterion for the client. Afterward, drafts of various designs waited for feedback or approval from the client --which could often take various redrafting because the owners would have specific color schemes and concepts for the students to integrate into their murals, which eventually lead to a desirable design for both parties.
However, the creative process could not have been executed without the drive from the students who chose to be in the course. Since it was open to all majors, each student that worked on the murals had different reasons in enrolling in the Urban Art Workshop.
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