The newest contributors to Saginaw’s budding street art scene were attending school long before the current practitioners were born.
Elders from Nyesha Clark-Young’s “Art Therapy with Nye” class at The Nabe, formerly Neighborhood House, are assisting with the latest mural to come to the downtown area.
They won’t be painting the side of a building, like the two recent five-story efforts along Franklin Street, south of The Dow Event Center.
Instead, their “canvas” will be on the ground, along the 200 block of South Water Street, near the old armory, similar to what bypassers see at both ends of the Court Street Bridge.
Patrons at Thursday’s Saginaw Business Expo, 4 to 8 p.m. at SVRC Marketplace, will observe them concluding their handiwork, directly across the river from the new Saginaw United High School construction site.
Growing up during the 1950s and 1960s, members of The Nabe’s crew rarely were encouraged to delve into the arts. Through Nyesha’s classes, they are discovering self-expression a half-century after their own formative years.
Martha Kelley, who was a fixture when she served as The Nabe’s office manager, has returned with no work duties this time. She started by painting her own coffee mug and now is busy decorating a stylized quilt out of dresses, bringing bright colors even as her own eyesight begins to fade.
Deana Carruth is putting together a head dress for a model Native American tribal member.
“If I look at it for a while, I can pick up on what to do,” she says. “Give me a suggestion and show me something, and I’ll follow. I like to do creative things.”
Shirley Cork says, “This gives me something to do, instead of sitting at home doing nothing,” and she feels like she is part of a team, looking forward to a “group effort” with Thursday’s Water Street mural, to bring pride to The Nabe.
Carolyn Jones used finger paint to gain palm prints from her 17 great-grandchildren, which she is sewing with lacy fringes onto cloth patterns for a collection of family keepsakes.
Darnell Green and his spouse, Geraldine, or “Fe Fe,” have chosen quilting as their form of expression. Darnell shows his hopes for a more vibrant Saginaw with a vivid streetscape, while Fe Fe celebrates her remission from a bout with cancer via a quilt that goes heavy on pink.
Clark-Young, a 1992 Saginaw High grad who studied art at Delta College and SVSU helped her seniors prepare for the big day by bringing them to the recent African Cultural Festival, where she is arts chairwoman. She also took them to join her more youthful peers at the officially named “Street Art Park” beneath the west foot of the Court Street Bridge. DeVaughn Collins, an artist on the Bearinger Building’s “Dear Mama” mural unveiled last week, is partnering with Nyesha on the project.
One concession to age will be that Thursday’s mural artists will work with standup paint rollers.
“I love my crew, they are excited about this event and they are always down to try something new,” Nyesha says. “This is a transgenerational art experience, I don’t think this has ever been done before. You’re never too old or young to try new things.”
The block-grant funded Saginaw Economic Development Corp., SEDC, hosts the 10th annual expo and works with entrepreneurs who are turned down for traditional startup financing. For information, call (989) 759-1595 or visit www.saginaw-mi.com/sedc.
