Hoboken Charter School’s Upper School creates public art with social justice theme

The Hoboken Charter School’s Upper School recently created public art with a social justice and/or service-learning theme.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“It was exciting to see it all come together as we are all different people with different styles trying to make the cougar come together to represent our mission of social justice,” HCS Upper School senior Ava Arias said in a statement.

Hoboken Charter School (HCS) has been added to the list of Animodule® homes (also featured in Times Square, Newark Museum of Art, Nassau County Museum of Art and Turtleback Zoo) and welcomes the community to visit the sculpture in front of the upper school building, located at 711 Washington St.

The Animodule® is a three dimensional “Animated Module” sculpture, formed by notching two flat planes together to create a third dimension.

The HCS Upper School Animodules® sculpture elective, created with The Barat Foundation thanks to a grant from the Hudson County Arts in Education, held an unveiling of their public artwork, sharing artist statements to highlight the work and activism reflected in the final product.

HCS student artists explored public art as activism and worked to find symbols that represent their values, goals and causes they are committed to which can be found throughout the cougar (the HCS mascot) sculpture.

Students also take pride in the murals they created adorning the walls inside the upper school building via their Murals and Public Art elective.

In this elective, upper school students spent time studying mural composition as an activist’s tool, designed the mural to reflect their own passions about inequity and combined their work into a comprehensive mural.

“There was a lot of thought and discussion about the ideas before we even began to touch the walls. It means a lot for many different people to be represented and to make a physical mark on our building for all to see,” said Emma Ronney, a junior at the school.

“I am delighted to have these art installations serve as yet another reflection of who we are and how students can change the world: student voice as a visual!” exclaimed HCS Upper School Principal Joanna Weintraub.

UCS Upper School Executive Director Deirdra Grode also expressed enthusiasm about the initiative.

“These public art projects provide a glimpse into our mission-oriented program. HCS is a unique K-12 learning community, striving for a just world through its commitment to social justice and service-learning and a curriculum grounded in learner-centered practices and inter-age experiences,” she said.

“These public art projects engaged our students in multi-grade collaborative process work for the community as they delved into issues of identity, diversity, justice and action as well as art as a tool of community-building and activism.”