Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: Due to a loss of our favorite slideshow component, I am having to place the slideshow below the Read More, so it does not infringe on the article in the second column. I am frustrated as heck, but my webmaster is working on a solution. Thank you for your patience! I'm working on mine!]

The Youth Mural Program dedication on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2023, began at the MainStreet Plaza by the restroom, which was the first mural completed of the three to be dedicated.

Youth Mural Program Organizer Diana Ingalls Leyba said the project began when Charmeine Wait served as Silver City MainStreet director. "She wanted a decorated restroom. We decided that tile was the best medium and local artist, Zoe Wolfe, led the project, with Carol Brady and Teja Clark helping."

Wolfe said: "It was nice to work on one focused on clay. Especially because it was dimensional and wrapped around the building. I had an amazing team of young women. The biggest challenge for me was learning their names."

She read off the list. The team consisted of Katrina Estrada, Julene Jaegers, Mia Estrada, Michaela Roacho, Keana Heurta, and Kaleena Reiter.

Ingalls-Leyba gave credit to Sygyzy tiles for providing the tiles for the project and said the project was funded through a grant secured by the Silver City MainStreet Project. It chose as its subject matter the riparian areas just below the plaza.

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The restroom at the Main Street Plaza, has received a Youth Mural Program mural all around the building.

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Part of the mural at the bottom of this side

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Another portion of the tile mural on the same side

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Youth Mural Program organizer Diana Ingalls Leyba points out parts. Center is one of the artists, Kaleena Reiter and at right, facilitating artist Zoe Wolfe

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One side

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A third side

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And the fourth side

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The second mural dedicated on Sept. 16, 2023, was on the back of the Oasis building.

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Former WNMU art professor Jennifer Douglass talked about this mural. Center is one of the art students, Laurel Edwards, and at right is Ingalls Leyba.

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A closeup of a detail of the mural on the Oasis building.

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In the Big Ditch a third mural decorates the walls and the bottom of the College Street Bridge.

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More murals in the Big Ditch

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Part of this mural involved adding mosaic tiles to the low wall.

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The stream side of the low wall with Water Is Life on top.

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Water is Life in Spanish

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And Water is Life in Apache

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This portion of the mural is behind a fence because people were camping beneath it.

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The other side of the bottom of the College Street Bridge

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More mural painting on the bottom of the bridge

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And another portion of the wall in the Big Ditch.

The second dedication was a painted mural on the back of the Oasis building, which featured rich riparian areas. Western New Mexico University painting professor Jennifer Douglass, who had a three-year contract with the university, facilitated the project, assisted by Ericka Burleigh and Jess DeMoss. WNMU art students Jasper Eyrich-Bingham, Laurel Edwards, Raven Meyers, Charlee Alexander, and Cate Howard and Aldo Leopold Charter School's Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) mural crew of Emma Blanco, Marin Farley, and Mia Riley painted the wall. This project was funded by the Town of Silver City.

Douglass said: "I asked my students if they wanted to participate in this project. They said: 'Yes.' Many of them had very little artistic experience. What Diana did was make them actual artists. The students did the research for the project, by talking to the biology department and going out to the Mimbres River to learn about the fish, the plants, the wildlife and the endangered species. We spent three hours every Wednesday designing the painting and doing the painting. It was the Painting 1 Class and some more advanced students. The camaraderie was great. We completed the work in the summer of 2022. We got an award for the painting and the project. "

"It is not my mural," Douglass continued. "It is theirs. They learned to use color and perspective and more focus and less focus.They painted the wall."

The final mural dedication of the day began near Lion's Park and ended under the College Street Bridge. Ingalls Leyba and Jess DeMoss led this project with help from Erika Burleigh, Teja Clark, and Sylvia Myers. The project addressed issues of way-finding and brightened the San Vicente Trail. Youth artists included Marin Farley, Evangelica Matinez-Munez, Makiah Grandino, Gusset Baker, Katherine Shaw, Mia Estrada, Micah Jo Heurta, Mauri Nelson, Meliani Diaz-Urbina, Deidranee Abeyta, Dakota Arnold,Aaron Asburn, Junior Casaus, Alicia, Garcia, Ella Jameson, Makayla Jaurequi, Alicia Martinez, Dominic Rasmussen, Nadia Vasquez, Eleo Warner, Dara Werner-Raiter, Samuel Castello, Kyra Floyd, Kristopher Glover, Isaac Younger-Titus, Katlyn Arroyo, Dakota, Montenegro, Madisyn Montez, Zev River, Mia Riley, Emma Blanco,and Devyn Prest. This project was funded through a grant secured by the Silver City Main Street Project and Aldo Leopold Charter School's YCC Mural Crew.

The artists spent about three weeks creating the multi-faceted and multi-location mural over about three weeks last summer.

DeMoss pointed out a fence with a mural behind it as the spectators walked the trail. "There was no fence before we painted it, but we had to put in the fence to keep people from building their shelters under the bridge. The way finding signs help anyone traveling the trail. The low wall was covered with mosaic tiles left over from previous projects."

The third mural also uses riparian areas for the subject matter.

To a question, Ingalls Leyba, who has led the program since its inception, said the first mural was created by the Youth Mural Program in 2003.