Mural Of Newtown Creek Goes Up On Long Island City School

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A new mural inspired by Newtown Creek is going up on a Long Island City school building, part of an eco-friendly arts initiative highlighting global climate issues.

The large-scale mural by artist Federico "Iena Cruz" Massa is being painted on the side of the Hunter's Point Community Campus, where it will face the mouth of the long-polluted Newtown Creek, which the federal government designated as a Superfund site a decade ago.

Massa's piece will be New York City's first example of carbon-neutral street art: The artist is using recycled and repurposed brushes and buckets, as well as an environmentally-friendly paint that can absorb air pollution, according to a news release.

“Art is a powerful medium that can help raise awareness of the daily harms we inflict on our planet,” he said in a statement.

The mural project is part of the sustainability-focused arts production group GreenPoint Innovations' initiative "GreenPoint EARTH 2020: Screens2Streets," an official Climate Week NYC event created in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign.

Stephen Donofrio, principal and founder of GreenPoint Innovations, called Massa "a gifted artist whose work is indicative of how the creative community can use their platform to tackle social and environmental justice issues like climate change," he said in a statement.

The Newtown Creek Alliance, a community-based organization dedicated to restoring the waterway, was a close collaborator on the piece.

“This mural will stand as a reminder to the community of Long Island City, and to all New Yorkers, that our shorelines and waterways are worthy of celebration and that the legacy of pollution and neglect must be behind us," Lisa Bloodgood, director of advocacy and education for the Newtown Creek Alliance, said.