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The Utah Arts Council and the National Endowment for The Arts recently awarded $16,000 to Martinez for a multi-cultural community project that will include Art and Art History Department students and faculty.
In early June 2008, a mural based on the Fiesta de Cristo Rey, which is almost as famous as many of the Day of the Dead rites, will appear stroke-by-stroke to cover the Utah Art Council Collection Building at 250 South 600 West. The festival celebrates the peak of the flower growing season in Michoacán and the residents not only gather the flowers to decorate the streets but also paint the streets with incredible and startling floral designs.
The image created for the NEA proposal by Art and Art History Department faculty V. Kim Martinez was accomplished with the help of Neighborhood Housing services. For the past few years the organization has been conducting workshops with people in the community for a separate project they are working on with artist Lily Yeh. Maria Gracias graciously allowed Professor Martinez access to the information they have collected, which she then incorporated into the comprehensive mural design. Professor Martinez regularly teaches a course on mural painting and this NEA-Utah Arts Council project is a natural outgrowth of her previous work that takes students into the community.
The project will be multi-cultural on many levels. Art education students will interview students from Youth City, Neighborhood Housing Services, and members of the community near the mural site to gather first-hand information about Mexican folklore. This interaction will provide students an opportunity to explore community-based art education, mentor youth, and will afford the students a deeper sense of meaning for the project. Additionally, Professor Martinez will work with the students painting the mural to educate them in the traditions, legacy, and painting philosophies and techniques of Mexican muralist Alfred Siqueiros. Chicana muralist Judith F. Baca studied with the maestro, and Martinez spent this past summer studying with Baca painting the "Great Wall of Los Angeles.
