Mural of Newtown Creek created on the side of HPCMS

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By Arthur Troy, Damian Frankovic, Jada Pilgrim, and Nico Kladopoulos 


A mural depicting Newtown Creek, a landmark dividing Queens and Brooklyn was uncovered at 3502 Borden Avenue on the wall of the HPCMS Campus. Federico "Iena Cruz" Massa is an artist who has painted the mural on the Hunters Point community Middle School (HPCMS) wall, as an act of support for the Newtown Creek Alliance. The grand unveiling took place at 10/21/20 12:00PM in Hunters Point South. The Newtown Creek Alliance is a community-based organization dedicated to restoring the waterway in Newtown Creek. This new mural is showcasing a variety of birds that live around Newtown Creek such, as the centerpiece heron and cormorant. The paint that they used to make the mural absorbs harmful greenhouse gases that is in the air making it better for the environment. Newtown creek is located in the border between Brooklyn and Queens where it then connects to the east river. The point of this mural is to spread awareness to the creek and how important it is towards the environment. The Newtown Creek is also home to the digester Eggs that can be located in the brooklyn side of the Creek. These Giant shaped eggs can consume 1.4 million gallons of so called “Sludge” and can turn them into stable materials, fertilizer for plants and soil. GreenPoints say “Digester Eggs handle 1.4 million gallons of “sludge” and food-waste daily from across Brooklyn and much of Manhattan.” This makes such an impact in New York City because of how much garbage and pollution we have. All of this connects to the mural by showing awareness to the creek by showing all the wildlife it holds, while also taking in greenhouse gases furthermore helping our environment around us.

A press conference was held on October 21st 202 to cover the newly uncovered Newtown Creek Mural on the side of the Hunter's Point Campus Building. The Press Conference was started with a speech from two HPCMS students Briana Naranjo and Heronima Valledor. Briana who is a remote only student who got her first chance to view the mural in person. Heronima has been going to school through NYC’s blended learning and was able to see the work in progress. Both said their takes on the mural. “It’s inspiring because it showed me that expression can happen on a much larger scale. It shows art happens in many different ways, shapes and sizes.” Briana said. On the other hand Heronima commented on the features of the new mural, “I have been lucky to view the process of the mural. Some things that I think are intriguing about this piece, artistically, is the contrast of colors between the bright blue and vibrant orange. However the orange elements blend in seamlessly with the existing features of our building.” Other spokespeople at the conference included Councilmen Donovan Richards and Jimmy Van Bramer as well as Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. Other people present were HPCMS principal Sarah Goodman and Lisa Bloodgood, Director for advocacy and education at the Newtown Creek Alliance. Finally the mural's creator Fredrico Massa spoke to the crowd. “I feel so proud to be a part of this project and to be the artist selected to use my voice to highlight issues in our society. We want to show that we can do better, and we must do better to protect our environment. We can do it.” The new mural and it’s reception from the community around it has created positive reinforcement for the eco-friendly tools we can use in the future and for street art creations across the city.

The reason why this all matters is because the creation of this mural is solid proof that we can use eco-friendly painting techniques on a large scale and although it would be expensive eventually people will be able to get materials like this on a regular basis for all painters. This is just yet another industry we can begin to move over to sustainable practices. The mural also promotes eco-friendly activity in another way, through it’s actual image. The scene portrayed on the mural with a group of water birds with an industrial background standing in a swamp, is meant to promote eco-friendliness to our waterways and hopefully the mural does just that.

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