Elon students joined with a world-renowned muralist to paint the outside of a school in Mexico this month, and a professor who co-led the trip is trying to bring the artist to Burlington later this year for his first American project.
“What was really striking was that even though the have so little they’re so strong. They deal with what they have,” said Allison VanKanegan, a senior art and sociology double major. “They were so grateful that we came. It was incredible.”
The eight students on the trip are part of the Project Pericles program at Elon. Periclean Scholars are selected from each class of freshman and in the fall of their sophomore years choose one international issue on which to study and conduct service trips to address.
“This is the Winter Term course that breaks your heart,” said Bird Stasz, an associate professor of education who helped lead the service trip. “It was really an opportunity for us to think about in some very real ways what it means for the indigenous to live in ‘Los Altos’ and what it means to inhabit an area fraught with problems and issues but to live with dignity and ingenuity.”
Sociology professor Tom Arcaro, head of Project Pericles at the university, had met Pavon on New Year’s Eve and helped arrange for the Periclean Scholars to work with him on the school project.
“Working with muralist Gustavo Chavez to paint a two room school was meaningful on many levels for the Periclean Scholars,” Arcaro said. “This internationally known artist helped them connect more deeply with the community members in Suytic and to understand what this autonomous school means for the local people.”
He now hopes to bring Chavez to North Carolina to work on mural projects in Burlington and, perhaps, Durham and Greensboro. Plans are only preliminary, Arcaro said, though leaders in the three communities have expressed enthusiasm for the idea.
“Chavez always produces ‘art with a message,’” Arcaro said, “and his work embodies civic engagement and social responsibility, the core values of the Periclean Scholars program.”
In addition to painting the mural, students witnessed the dedication of a basketball court and helped a local family harvest coffee for a day.
“When we were in our last formal meetings giving our goodbyes, I said something about how I wanted them to know there are people in American fighting for the same things they were fighting for,” said Elon senior Sarah Cox. “That was the first time I feel connected both to the work I do in America and to other people around the world fighting for the same kind of justice.”
