The Wall of Respect (1967)

Hey folkies,

Well we’ve gessoed our polytab and now we are busy put content onto the same. Students

learned a little bit about how to correctly use masking tape, paint backgrounds for our cap-

pieces with acrylic, and trace contour lines from an opaque projector. I wish we had more than

one good projector though, this is where our progress slows a bit. Some parts of our

compositions are very complex. So scaling them up and making sure the parts link up correctly

can be hard at times. But we’ll get there.

Today during our discussion, we discussed one of the inspirations of this project: The Wall of

Respect from 1967. In that legendary piece of Public Art, the first community supported Public

Art piece. The composition was rendered by more than fifteen visual artists, all reflecting what

was important to the community. It was so important in the hearts of the people, that community supported Public Art, murals, swept the nation in the 1070’s and is still with us today.

The class had a couple of guests today, telling us more of the importance in the ‘50 th

Anniversary of the Black Student Union’ pillar. Francine Solunas, one of the founder’s of

DePaul’s Black Student Union, and Ellise Myles a BSU current member talked to the class. It

was great for the students to hear from Francine as to how the spirit of the day 50 years ago

had lots of similarities of today. The class got some really great insights from our guests and we

are really grateful for them coming by.

-Buffalo Bro