Dr. Paulo Boero, assistant professor of Spanish, recently received a $3,400 grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission. The award, titled “The Art of Jairo Prado: Inventing Communities and Creating Identities,” will fund a community mural designed by Colombian-born artist Jairo Prado, Belmont students and community members.
The mural follows the theme of Belmont’s 2010 Humanities Symposium, “Giving Shape to Airy Nothings: Inventing Communities, Creating Identities.” The mural will strive to give shape to the identity and community dynamics that emerge when immigrant and native cultures come across one another, forcing each other to revisit their identities and to create new ways of imagining themselves in the Middle Tennessee community they now constitute together. The four-panel, portable mural will be displayed at various prominent locations during the symposium, sometimes as a backdrop for keynote speakers.
On the afternoon of Thurs., Sept. 9, Prado gave a public lecture/visual media presentation in the Bunch Library Multi-Media Hall which was followed immediately by a reception in the Leu Gallery Foyer to celebrate the opening of Prado’s art exhibition on campus. The presentation also served to jumpstart the creation of the community mural project.
The Jairo Prado art exhibit is now on display in the Foyer of Bunch Library’s Leu Art Gallery until Oct. 22. Click here to see more photos from recent mural sketching/painting sessions.
