368 Sycamore St, Buffalo, NY 14204 (Get Directions) 

The two-part mural, titled Let’s See Dreams, was led and completed by a team of 19 BCAT students. 

With BCAT’s relocation to Buffalo’s East Side, the organization dramatically improved and expanded their capacity to serve and educate students in a wide variety of media. The arts center provides accessible pathways to meaningful work through high-quality learning and development, individualized support, and a dignified community environment, meeting students wherever they are in their journeys toward the future they envision. Located on Sycamore Street between the main thoroughfares of Jefferson and Michigan Avenues, the site will now stand out with a design reflective of the creative culture that flourishes at BCAT. 

The process started with conversations between BCAT and the AKG about how best to bring more attention to the critical support and education that BCAT provides. BCAT students, led by instructors Kevin Kline and Sarah Nemec, offered an initial treatment based off existing student work that immediately captured the imagination of the AKG Public Art staff.

From those early concepts, students spent months refining and addressing the architectural complexities of the building, the spirit of the overall programming provided at BCAT, and the methods of visual communication desired to bring more attention to the arts center. BCAT instructors guided students through the studio and mural production processes from initial concepts, reading and understanding building schematics to scale designs, through exhibiting prints of their digital mock-ups.

The AKG selected a dedicated mural team of Buffalo-based artists including Emeka Wajed, Naija Boles, and Danielle Saeva, who attended classes weekly, drawing upon their mural production experience and helping guide students through visual considerations to improve upon their designs. This team, along with additional support from local artists Karle Norman, Laura Valkwitch, and Bree Gilliam, will be responsible for the design transfer to the building and will facilitate the physical painting production under guidance from the AKG. By embedding a team of local artists, this collaboration is engaging and supporting BCAT students exploring livelihoods and careers in the creative economy while building the important connections within our creative community in Buffalo to sustain this kind of work long-term.

The final result is a bold, multi-colored collage of shapes, symbols, and messages cooperatively generated and arranged by BCAT students. The work will be impossible to miss from either travel direction on Sycamore. From the Jefferson side, the approach will guide visitors to the Mortimer Street parking lot and public entrance to the art center. From the Michigan side, the gigantic and visually striking west wall of the building will demand attention and assert the site as a critical location of creative production.

BCAT students on the project include: Mya Mitchell, Kevine Bampala, Estelle Hernandez-Healy, Ethan Jaszka, Madi Wolfson, Jester Gerenday, KC Carter, Heilly Feliciano, Christela Bampala, Ariel Baker- Ellis, Leah Roache, Lillyan Goines, Brenardo Powell, Kiarelis Rivera, Luciano Ramos, Apollo Johnson, Christian Edmonds, Amaya Saxon, and Jayla Peay.