East Harlem School Mural To Feature Carmen Herrera Design

EAST HARLEM, NY — Famed artist Carmen Herrera will lend one of her designs to an East Harlem school for a new mural to be unveiled on her 105th birthday, a nonprofit that sponsors arts programs for under served New York City students announced.

Students at Manhattan East School For Arts and Academics on East 100th Street will help create an adapted version of Herrera's 1987 painting "Diagonal" as a 54-foot-wide and 17-foot-tall mural on their school building, arts organization Publicolor announced Tuesday. Students enrolled in Publicolor's arts and education programs will also help install the mural.

Work on the mural will begin in April and is expected to be finished by Herrera's birthday on May 30.

"I am proud to offer this image to Spanish Harlem and particularly proud that Publicolor students, so many of them Spanish-speaking like me, will be creating this," Herrera said. "I selected several images and then reduced my choices to one that would best suit the specific site and, most importantly, that would challenge and motivate the students who are making it."

The Cuban-born artist said the the new mural — titled "Uno Dos Tres" — is not an exact replica of her painting "Diagonal." The mural, which depicts three black and white rectangles will help "make a bleak space vibrant with line and shape" and inspire creativity in the students, Herrera said.

This upcoming mural project is special for Publicolor because Manhattan East School For Arts and Academics was one of the first school's the organization helped beautify when it launched more than 20 years ago. The organization helps engage students at some of New York City's lowest performing middle and high schools through art projects, offering academic support and access to adult role models.

"This project with Carmen Herrera will bring the power of visual beauty through art to an underserved community," Publicolor founder Ruth Lande Shuman said in a statement