Inaugural Climate Engagement Mural complete!

On the corner of Mill Street and Saltonstall Avenue in Fair Haven, just 1.6 miles down from the Yale School of Art’s main building on Chapel Street, you’ll find a new mural created by 2020 MFA alum of the Painting/Printmaking program, Victoria Martinez. Entitled Take the Risk to Cool Down, the mural is the result of 12+ months of work by Martinez, collaborators across Yale, and Daniel Pizarro, MFA ‘12, the Communications Design Fellow for the project.

The site was carefully chosen by a committee of stakeholders across New Haven and the University, and the work is installed outside of MATCH, the Manufacturing and Community Technical Hub—a nonprofit that provides comprehensive manufacturing training, mentorship, wrap-around support, and jobs to the New Haven community. On a recent visit to MATCH, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro remarked on how the mural’s inherent creativity reflects the creativity of the organization housed inside.

The mural was first painted on parachute cloth at the Osborn Memorial Lab on Science Hill, where Martinez had a studio during her fellowship. With the help of mural coordinator, Irisol Gonzalez-Vega, Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘24, and mural assistants Kat Wiese, Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘24, Lobbin Liu, Graphic Design MFA ‘24, and Berkana McDowell, the design was painted September 1st through the 6th before the parachute cloth was transported to MATCH at 20 Mill Street in Fair Haven. On September 6th and 7th, the mural was affixed to the wall with the help of the mural coordinator and assistants, with the mural’s entire creation and installation taking place inside a week.

“The inspiration behind the mural includes various threads,” Martinez shared. “Part of the visual was inspired by warming stripes, which are a simple visual representation of the long-term rise in global temperatures due to human-caused climate change.”

The mural’s content contains references to climate change, while its physical installation works to lessen one of its effects—rising temperatures—through the use of cooling paint. Created for use on asphalt, the cooling paint is applied to a portion of the mural closest to the ground, in an attempt to contribute towards lessening the heat of the surrounding environment during the hottest parts of the year.

Throughout her fellowship, Martinez met weekly with members of Yale’s professional schools and units including Eric Fine, Project Manager, and Lisa Fernandez, Associate Director for the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. She also met with partners at the Yale School of the Environment last winter, who shared information about the warming stripes in New Haven County. Working collaboratively with Dean Pinder, Martinez incorporated gradients depicting warm and cool temperatures, inspired by the warming stripes, into the design.

The main action of the mural occurs in the center, where abstracted vegetation meets the warm sphere of a red sun, containing lotería cards that represent eco-friendly means of transportation: “la bicicleta” (the bicycle), “la bota” (the boot, for walking), and “el autobus” (the bus). Spanish for “lottery,” lotería is essentially Mexican bingo—a traditional game of chance that uses images on a deck of cards to determine who wins. As a Mexican-American artist, Martinez grew up playing this card game in Chicago with her family and friends. “I appreciate lotería because of its relationship to chance. I also love the iconography within the cards,” the artist shared, “I found a connection between the lotería game and climate change solutions because of ‘La Bota’ (the boot) card.” Each of the three lotería cards has a CTtransit bus route number that connects Fair Haven to Yale University.

The red sun was inspired by images of the sun’s changing color that were circulating the internet this summer. The photos depicted the sun’s color being affected by so many climate change disasters, and at one point the sun was an eerie red. After experiencing the poor air quality in New Haven because of the forest fires in Canada this summer, Martinez said she noticed a thick smog taking over the sky and plants wilting in June. “It was very difficult to breathe during my walks outside and I had never experienced this type of poor air quality in my life,” the artist shared. “I was frightened for the natural life in New Haven as well as everyone’s safety because it happened suddenly.”

The plants in the mural were inspired by the lack of trees Martinez noticed in Fair Haven, especially compared to other parts of the city. During her fellowship, the artist spent a good deal of time walking from her apartment in East Rock to Fair Haven. “During each walk, my senses felt the decline of oxygen and my skin felt the strength of the sun because there isn’t much shade when exiting East Rock and entering Fair Haven by foot,” Martinez said. “The abstract plants in the mural are a representation of my hope and desire that systems will invest in growing more plants and planting more trees in Fair Haven. Everyone deserves a good, healthy life regardless of class structures.”

The mural also includes a chevron pattern, which was developed through a series of drawing and painting workshops that Martinez hosted at the Fair Haven Library in June. “As an artist, I am fascinated by textile research,” Martinez shared. “I borrowed books from the Haas Library at Yale that depicted Latin American and Caribbean art and textiles and took the books to the Fair Haven Library. Additionally, I borrowed books from the children’s section at the Fair Haven Library that celebrates Latinx cultures. The books helped me and the participants develop different pattern designs and together we had conversations about our drawings.”

The chevron pattern that was included in the mural was selected by a local elementary teacher who was drawn to a book dedicated to Central American patterns and motifs. “I love this pattern because it includes many colors that represent people and relate to land and water,” the artist continued. “The workshops were a wonderful experience because I had the opportunity to meet community members from Fair Haven.”

These events led to more community gatherings where Martinez had the chance to paint with families including Fair Haven Day and Youth Day at Junta for Progressive Action, the oldest Latinx non-profit organization in New Haven. Next week, the chevron pattern painted collectively as part of Youth Day will be permanently installed in a community room at Junta For Progressive Action at 169 Grand Avenue in New Haven. “I hope that the effort behind this mural can perpetuate more conversations about climate change,” Martinez shared, “and offer more public programming that can benefit both the community and Yale University.”

Text by Lindsey Mancini.

Special thanks to Karen Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of the Environment; Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art Kymberly Pinder; Elihu Rubin, Associate Professor at the Yale School of Architecture; Eric Fine, Project Manager, and Lisa Fernandez, Associate Director for the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication; Adriane Jefferson, the Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of New Haven and the Executive Director of New Haven Festivals Inc.; Kim Futrell, Community Outreach Coordinator for the City of New Haven; Tarek Kandakji, Remote Sensing Specialist at the Yale School of the Environment; Kirk Morrison, Branch Manager at Fair Haven Library; Sarah Miller, Ward 14 Alder; Carly Sheehan, Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘20; Robert Storr, former dean and Faculty Emeritus at the Yale School of Art; mural coordinator Irisol Gonzalez-Vega, Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘24; mural assistants Kat Wiese, Painting/Printmaking MFA ‘24, Lobbin Liu, Graphic Design MFA ‘24, and Berkana McDowell; Daniel Pizarro, Communications Design Fellow for the Climate Engagement through Art in Cities initiative; Annie Lin, Project Specialist at the Yale School of Art; Asha Ghosh, Urban Program Manager at the Yale School of the Environment; Michael Morand, Director of Community Engagement at the Beinecke Library; and William Reynolds.

The Climate Engagement through Art in Cities Fellowships are made possible through Yale University’s Planetary Solutions Project, a campus-wide initiative launched in December 2020. Aiming to raise awareness of climate and biodiversity work across Yale, and to spark new approaches, the Planetary Solutions Project is rooted in scholarship and research, and calls on Yale to provide leadership in tackling environmental challenges and to use the campus as a laboratory for implementing the best technologies, policies, and ideas.

The Fellowships are funded by the Yale School of Art and the Climate Impact Innovation Fund and are made possible through the Yale Planetary Solutions Project.

Join us for the public mural unveiling!

Monday, October 2, 2023

4-5 PM

20 Mill Street, Fair Haven

Find full information on the Yale School of Art’s public events calendar >

On May 6, 2023, Victoria Martinez led a community painting project as part of Fair Haven Day, a festival celebrating community, local art and artists, culture, sports, creativity, entrepreneurship, and partnership, presented by and for the Fair Haven neighborhood.

On June 3, 2023, Victoria Martinez led a community painting workshop as part of Youth Day at Junta for Progressive Action, the oldest Latinx non-profit organization in New Haven.

On June 10, 2023, Victoria Martinez led a painting workshop at Fair Haven library.

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