Title:  Set It Off


Site:  Robeson High School
6835 South Normal Boulevard, Chicago

Artists:  Kristal Pacheco and Damon Reed


Community Participants: Robeson High School students


Sponsors: Chicago Public Art Group and Gallery 37


Year:  2003


Scale:  8 x 125 feet


Materials:  Acrylic on concrete


Information:  What uplifts you? Who inspires you? How can we inspire each other?

These questions drew many responses from Robeson students including spiritual fulfillment, education, family, and teachers. Students suggested that being role models, helping others, and having a more positive attitude toward differences are ways that we can inspire each other. After brainstorming with the students, CPAG artists drew some of the ideas discussed and created a preliminary design for the wall. The students started working on a series of projects that would help develop their artistic skills. These projects helped to generate a more interesting and meaningful design for the final mural.

The collage-text style was inspired by the Headline Poetry Project on the Spiral Art Education website, http://spiral.aa.uic.edu