Avenue Of The Arts Costa Mesa Hotel Installs Mural Made By Arts Connect Students

A small unveiling presentation of an extraordinary mural created by teaching artist Markus Tracy and Taft Elementary School students was held on Thursday, March 24 at its display site at the Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa Hotel with key Segerstrom Center and AOA Hotel staff in attendance: Paul Sanford, CEO & Asset Manager of Wincome Hospitality, Talena Mara, Vice President of Education of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and Dr. Scott Barlow, Principal of Taft Elementary.

The mural was created in February 2020, when three classrooms of 5th grade students from Taft Elementary School in Santa Ana had the opportunity to participate in a visual arts workshop with teaching artist Markus Tracy, thanks to Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel's support of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Arts Connect education program. Through Arts Connect, the Center brings teaching artists who represent music, dance, theater, and visual arts to reach out to students with special needs and second language learners, as well as to hospitals and community venues. Together, Markus and the students created a colorful mural celebrating individuality while working collaboratively to embrace their school and classroom community.

"At Segerstrom Center for the Arts we believe that when our community partners work together on arts projects, the positive outcomes are multiplied and heightened by the deeply powerful energy created through collaboration. The arts teach many important skills like self-expression, problem solving, organizational skills, courage, creativeness, discipline, and the list goes on and on... but each of these skills learned through a creative process impacts academic, career, and life success in the future. Add the value of these important learned skills in a process that also includes collaboration among neighboring institutions, and the impact is significantly magnified for everyone involved. Through these creative visual arts mural project, Taft students were able to engage in an art making process that allowed them to think creatively about the possibilities available to them and their future inside their very own neighborhood! What an honor it is to work with each of these partners to create and implement this imaginative project that benefits everyone in such valuable and extraordinary ways," says Talena Mara, Vice President of Education, Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa Hotel and the hotel's on-site restaurant, Silver Trumpet Restaurant and Bar are proud supporters of Segerstrom Center for the Arts and its education programs like Arts Connect. In the past, the Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa Hotel supported the Center and American Ballet Theatre's Uniting in Movement project by providing 42 hotel rooms for the choreographers, dancers and ABT artistic staff who lived and rehearsed in a quarantined 'bubble' to present their project. They also recently underwrote the performance run of the Broadway touring production of My Fair Lady.

Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa Hotel and Silver Trumpet Restaurant and Bar are owned and managed by Wincome Hospitality, a family-owned business that believes in participating in neighborhood events, community charities and civic associations.

"Wincome Hospitality, Avenue of the Arts Costa Mesa Hotel, and Silver Trumpet Restaurant and Bar are proud of our deep partnership with Segerstrom Center for the Arts. To introduce the arts to our youth is to share a different way of thinking and creativity. Through the Arts' Connect program, these students can take what they've learned and use it to become the next generation of artists. It can change their definition of what is possible for themselves. In turn, they will help elevate and inspire the next generation. This is how we build future leaders, and in time create a better, harmonious society," says Paul Sanford (CEO & Asset Manager, Wincome Hospitality).

Markus Tracy emerged as a multidisciplinary artist with a socially-engaged practice focusing on murals, installations, and site-specific projects. He works with educational and civic institutions using the visual arts as a vehicle for empowering individuals and communities at-large to make positive choices while fostering tolerance and respect. He uses the visual arts as a positive outlet for artistic expression and community dialogue. While producing and exhibiting his studio and performance art, Markus continues to be awarded public art commissions, grants, and artist-in-residencies throughout the United States.

Markus believes that the function of murals should go beyond an aesthetic appeal but bridge a common ground based on social and cultural understanding. This common ground empowers people and communities to make positive choices through fostering tolerance, respect, and understanding. Murals also function to stimulate dialogue and awareness concerning issues related to social and cultural diversity, civic pride, environmental preservation, and conflict resolution.