The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua is adding more art to its walls, as students team up with five muralists from Colombia in this year’s edition of Muralfest. The club is adding three new murals as part of a $10 million renovation to make the space more welcoming for the 13,000 kids the club serves every year.
Director of Arts & Youth Voice Cristhian Londoño was part of the selection panel for the muralists. He said these artworks are a way for kids to leave their mark and feel a sense of belonging at the club.
“A lot of kids that come from different towns or different places don't speak the language. So art is a great way to communicate yourself, because you can communicate anything with art,” he said. “As soon as they put a mark on the wall, the mark is going to be there forever.”
He said they used a technique called “doodling,” where the kids are free to paint on the wall, which becomes the basis for the murals — one large mural with sports figures for the club's remodeled gym, one in the stairwell, and a calming mural for the club's new social and emotional room.
Artist Mugre Diamante created a colorful mural in the stairwell that separates the area for the younger kids upstairs and the teenage center downstairs. The figures in the mural get bigger as they go down — just like the kids who make the transition between the two floors. She wrote “let the kids play,” reflecting values that are important to her and the club.
“For me, it’s very important to see the kids grow up in an environment where they can be kids. Somewhere they can play, read, run, sing, and aren’t forced to be in a hostile context or far away from their families,” she said.
Fellow artist J Daniel Correa Osorio contributed to the large mural in the remodeled gym, featuring three kids playing sports. For him, being able to add another mural is a chance to share the rich culture of urban art from his native Colombia.
“We’re also showing that our country has much more to offer than the stigmas that we’ve always had,” he said. "We have art, we have culture — not only in music, but also in painting"
Other renovations to the space include a new kitchen and a separate entrance for social services and the club's community closet.
