Years ago, before Arizona State University broke ground at its expanded downtown Phoenix campus, then-student Malissa Geer attended an information forum. The meeting was called to discuss the University’s proposal to move a handful of colleges to Phoenix, and students and faculty had plenty of questions. Was downtown safe? Was there parking? Was there food?
Geer, a Phoenix resident, had a different question.
“I thought, ‘What was the University doing to be a good neighbor?’” she says.
Now the community engagement liaison in the College of Public Programs, Geer oversees "For Our Eyes," ASU Downtown's very own art gallery housed throughout the floors of the University Center building.
This Friday, the University Center will host a public exhibition featuring live music, food and many of the participating artists.
The "For Our Eyes" collection changes every semester, with each exhibition answering a different research-based question or tackling a chosen topic. Issues of immigration, mind-body wellness and sense of self have previously been explored in the exhibition space, with the current display focusing on social justice and human rights.
“It’s hard to just sit down and talk about [those issues], but when you look at art it becomes not this personal tension between you and I. We’re looking at an art piece that can engage us in a conversation about the art, which really is a conversation about [the issue],” Geer says.
Geer works with partners within the University and various college programs to tap into Downtown’s resources — both artistic and influential.
“’For Our Eyes' means the arts are an opportunity to draw in our eyes,” Geer explains, “but you’ll see that next to each piece of artwork there’s a little panel, and in that storyboard that’s what we hope inspires our students and our faculty to move it from our eyes and seeing art as an atheistic — which it is and it’s a beautiful contribution — but it’s also about transforming us and challenging us and reminding us why we’re studying what we’re studying.”
This semester’s partners include the American Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, No Mas Muertas, Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development and the Lincoln Family YMCA, which has a piece featured prominently in the lobby.
Valley artist and YMCA board member Jenny Ignaszewski’s three part instillation is only one part of the art display. Ignaszewski, a long-time downtown Phoenix resident, was approached not solely because of her artistic talent, but rather because of her combination of artistic vision and relationship with the community — an interconnected partnership Geer focuses on highlighting with each artist in each collection.
“The artwork we created is about the community connections that transpire organically within the walls of the Downtown Y. Experiences and friendships there are not forced, rather they arise naturally when people unwind,” Ignaszewski writes in an email.
“The Y is a place where one can wear gym shorts and sweat next to someone who is in all ways different, but in all ways the same. People who love the Downtown Y love themselves, take pride in their own abilities and aspire to make their lives, and those of others, better. We are all in it together,” she says.
Ignaszewski has two more pieces on the second floor, accompanied by work from Robert Miley, Francisco “Enuf” Garcia and Joseph “Sentrock” Perez — an artist who became an ASU art history student following his involvement with "For Our Eyes."
“The art is vital because it brings balance to the students and the university,” Perez says.
He also says the art is important for students in terms of understanding their community, which in turn helps them understand themselves.
“You learn so much from the people around you, and I think it’s good to have the artwork of the community to be relevant to all the people and to understand where your community’s coming from and what they’re about, and how that can shape your life too,” he says.
No Phoenix neighborhood knows that better than Maryvale, where Perez works as a mural artist.
The intersection of 35th Avenue and McDowell is almost always busy, which makes sense, considering it’s one of the first westbound exits off of a busy multi-state highway.
On a warm Friday afternoon in October, kids in white polo shorts and uniform blue shorts run around on the grass playground at nearby Isaac Middle School.
A sign on the street corner proclaims “Maryvale — A Vibrant Village”; just a few hundred feet beyond, another warns against cruising. Signs for surrounding businesses are written on cardboard, or painted on connected wooden squares. Family-owned bodegas operate across from rundown Circle K stores.
Toddler clothing sets hang from a fence at a yard sale, while the front yards of neighboring houses are littered with discarded children’s toys left without shelter from the elements, collecting the brown dust from the ground. Groups of men stand in the street talking, while others survey the area shirtless from their front doors.
Sandwiched between the bustle, on an unassuming residential street with little traffic but plenty of parked cars, is Perez’s artwork.
From opposing sides of the street, Perez’s murals mirror each other. One is emblazoned with the quote, “For once I was blind/Now I can see,” taking liberties with a lyric from “Amazing Grace”. The other boasts a skull and the signature “Bird City Saints.” A small RIP followed by three names hides in the lower right corner. The words “community art project” are tagged in the lower left corner of a neighboring alley.
Further north are more cinderblock walls colored institution white, tagged black with symbols illegible to the average passerby.
Today, Perez, 24, has expanded his artistic grasp from the streets to the students. Aside from being one himself, Perez is in charge of creating curriculum for an upcoming youth program at the Phoenix Center for the Arts.
In addition to his murals, Perez paints on canvas — and even sometimes with his feet. Break dance painting — a combination of dancing and, well, painting — was something he developed to showcase his need and love for artistic expression.
“It came together because art is something I’ve always wanted to do — like visual art. And dancing is something that I’ve always loved doing. I really wanted to show people that, yeah, in a sense, it is just a hobby and it is just something we do, but there’s more that goes on behind it... Breaking is an art form,” he says.
Perez first danced for the University at a "For Our Eyes" gallery opening — right in the west lobby entrance of the building. From there, he was asked to perform at a Barrett, the Honors College, event, and recently asked by the city of Phoenix to perform at a multicultural celebration as well as the grand opening of CityScape.
On the first day of the grand opening celebration, Perez and his fellow b-boy Ruben Gonzales are setting up for a Sound in Color exhibition near downtown streets brewing with rush hour traffic.
The two laugh and joke with each other while Perez tapes down first a blue tarp, then a white canvas. They practice moves, flipping off nearby boxes, stretching by the turntables. Friend DJ Cre kicks the beat, and the two grab bright blue paint by the fist-full, applying it to the soles of their shoes, slapping it between their palms. The paint etches into the creases of Gonzales’ hands and in between his fingers.
Perez takes to the canvas, loosening his joints in a series of dance moves and then transforming them into handstands and fancy footwork. A crowd gathers: commuters coming off a long day’s work, coming-and-going diners at Five Guys, a news crew on the scene to cover CityScape and the mayor’s senior assistant. Commuters driving by stare bewildered. Camera phones come out by the droves as Perez and Gonzales take turns on the canvas. Between moves, they steal glances at each other and smile.
If you go:
"For Our Eyes" ASU Downtown Campus, University Center 411 N. Central Ave., Phoenix 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 5
