Penn State Graduate Student Serves the Community on MLK Day
- Feb 24, 2015
- 3 min read
HARRISBURG, Pa. – You don’t have to live in South Allison Hill to help fight Harrisburg City’s blight. You can be a student, an art enthusiast, or someone who has no background of art but wants to get involved in helping the community. This year Jeff Copus, a communications graduate student at Penn State Harrisburg, was one of the artists who contributed to the day of service in South Allison Hill. He spent his Martin Luther King Jr. Day working on murals, which are a part of a program called, ArtUp!
ArtUp! is an initiative of Tri County Community Action. The organization works to fight poverty in the inner city. Another program within Tri County is a community revitalization program, which is focused on the South Allison Hill Neighborhood of Harrisburg. Tri County worked with the residents of South Allison Hill to create a six year community plan. One of the things that the residents and neighborhood stakeholders wanted to see addressed was the blight within the neighborhood. ArtUp! is also designed to reduce crime in that part of Harrisburg. Neighboring residents are more watchful and protective of the abandoned properties especially where art has been added.
Copus became aware of the ArtUp! project in 2014 when he participated in the Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of service. It was then that he decided to sign up and become an active participant in project. Copus and Emilia Yang, a recent Penn State Harrisburg MA in communications graduate, were in an independent study with Dr. Robin Veder, focusing on art and activism. They were looking for a platform to help put their studies into action, so they approached Tri County to see how they could help with the work that was being done within the program.
The community creates the artwork, both in the idea and the execution. This helps give the community ownership of the projects. ArtUp! works as facilitators to help get the ideas on canvas. Once community or outside artists contribute a piece of their work, the members of the community are given the opportunity to make the piece come to life. From laying out the panels, adding gesso, sketching and painting, the community ultimately creates the work of art that will be seen throughout the area.
“ArtUp! paint days will be posted through Tri County Community Action, and are open to all, with a focus on the residents in the community, “Copus said. “We are in need of artists who might be interested in helping bring the communities visions to life,” he said.
Artists who are interested can contact him via email at jlc634@psu.edu or eff@jeffcopus.com. This project has spurred a larger mural movement in the City of Harrisburg that is growing and all who are interested are encouraged to support it.
“Along with a few other artists, I have formed an organization, Sprocket Mural Works, which is facilitating projects around the city,” said Copus. “The murals make a communal impact,” he said.
People interested in helping out on projects can sign up via the website www.sprocketmuralworks.com. Local artist take ideas and themes that the community feel are important and share them through the murals. Through various mechanisms, the community reviews and selects which artists and ideas they want to bring to life. The artists then create a large scale drawing, incorporating community feedback, on a canvas, which is then painted by the community under the direction of the artist. Although the artist contributions are a vital part of the program, the murals would not be possible without support from the community.
“You can help fight blight and turn around the negative mindset about run down inner city buildings through art,” said Copus.
“Art is powerful. Art can be transformative,” Copus said. He said he used to think the power of art and design was in the final product. But through this project, he said, he has seen how the creation process can be so much more powerful and that working with individuals in the community and hearing their stories is rewarding and inspiring.
Copus said participants in the project have told him how much better the once-run-down properties look. It is not just individual community members getting involved, but also organizations, such as the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club, he said.
Copus is hoping to integrate mural work and community building into the university. He is looking for support and interest from community members and students. Although MLK Day of Service has passed for the 2015 year, it is never too late to help a community in need. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
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