Neither Maya Ricard nor the rest of her classmates in Professor Corey Shouse’s Latinx Identities in the United States course are art majors.
So when Shouse approached them about designing and painting a walking mural to be displayed at an International Women’s Day Event March 8 at the Solar Arts Building in Minneapolis, they were understandably a bit trepidatious.
“I’m not a visual arts person and I was skeptical about what I’d be able to contribute to a project like this,” said Ricard, a senior at CSB majoring in biology with a minor in environmental studies and Hispanic studies.
“It just seemed so far out of the wheelhouse for a lot of us.”
But Ricard and her classmates quickly warmed to the idea, coming together to create a work that used footprints to represent 12 historical icons who made a huge impact on international women’s history.
The final result was so impressive it wound up being used as the backdrop on stage for the exhibition – entitled “Mujeres Creadoras: Women Who Create. Women Who Lead. Women Who Inspire.”
“The organizer (Constanza Carballo) and gallery owner were impressed with the mural our students created,” said Shouse, a Professor of Hispanic studies.
“They thought it brought a lot of energy. Everybody was talking about how great it turned out.”
The project originated when Shouse was approached by Carballo, with whom he’s worked before.
“I told the students about it and asked them if they could participate and design this in place of a formal presentation,” he said.
“I showed them what a mural like this looks like. But they took care of the design and content. It was really fun to see the way they took ownership of this high impact project.”
Because the class is part of Latino/Latin American Studies, students included Frida Kahlo, Sonia Sotomayor and other women of Hispanic origin alongside other icons like Amelia Earhart and Susan B. Anthony.
“Each student picked the names of two important women we knew of and that started the discussions of who to include,” said CSB first-year Chelsi Valerio Tatis, a student from the Dominican Republic who is majoring in math on a pre-engineering track.
“I’d taken part in big celebrations in my country for International Women’s Day,” she continued. “I was hoping there’d be the chance to do the same thing here, so when this came up, it made me really happy.”
The project took two weeks to complete, getting it ready for the event which drew well over 300 people. CSB first-year Lucy Mariana Martinez-Port, a global business leadership major, said seeing it displayed prominently behind the stage was a real source of pride.
“It kept catching my eye,” she said. “I’d look at the other exhibits, but I kept coming back to it.
“I was really honored and proud to be part of this,” Martinez-Port continued. “I’d never participated in a women’s day event before in any capacity, even though I’m from Minneapolis where most of the events take place. So, to get this chance was very, very exciting.
“The times we’re in now can be stressful and taxing on mental health, so to be able to step away from that and be surrounded by other people who share the same goals as you as people and as women was really exciting. It just brought forth so many positive emotions.”
