In May of 2017, after 10 years of amazing hard work, Fresh 23 art and fashion show came to an end, and the art department needed something new to do for this year.

So, what did they decide to do? This month, art department manager, Franky Scaglione, with the help of some old friends, came up with the idea of working on something totally different, something equally as powerful as Fresh 23. Something that’ll bring the whole community back together again. On 38th Ave, and High Court, Scaglione and several of his art students are painting an amazing mural on the side of Right Coast Pizza Restaurant.

Although there will be nothing like Fresh 23 again, the thrill of new ideas and new projects is always invigorating. Scaglione had had the idea to create a mural for a long time, and now with an opportunity open to try something new, with no hesitation, he immediately took it. He couldn’t waste this chance on something only ordinary.

“I didn’t have the heart to do a mediocre project…we had to go big and we had to knock it out of the park!” says Scaglione. And he sure did hit a home run with this one. He reached out to one of his favorite artists and a friend in the city, Jaime Molina, to see if he would be interested in helping with the mural project. And without hesitation, Molina, with the help of his teammate, Pedro Barrios, got on board.

In early January, Scaglione, Molina, Barrios, and Shawn Gruenhagen, a long time partner of Fresh 23, met with the  32 advanced art students to create something that will take the people’s breath away. From throwing ideas around, to developing a theme, to coming up with colors, they soon came up with the idea to paint a story of the students.

“The mural is meant to be the collective story of our students, a narrative about reaching out to the future, while honoring our personal histories and experiences,” says Scaglione. Throughout the painting, there are small icons and symbols that  student artists include to represent their own story, their life and what it means to them.

As the students paint their journeys on a blank brick wall, their talent and beauty will be set there forever. On May 16 the mural will be finished and revealed, for not just a few hundred will see, but now even the whole city can see our story.