The permanent mural, titled Kings and Queens, is 200 feet long and 9 feet tall. It depicts various faces representing a range of ethnic groups. The mural was painted, with the help of Kent State professor Kirk Mangus and 25 Summit County youths, on the ba

Credit: Steve Schirra

It’s not every day that 25 kids can paint on the side of a downtown building and not get in trouble for it.

But that’s exactly what happened in Akron recently when Kent State professor Kirk Mangus and 25 Summit County youths “colorized” Summit Artspace in downtown Akron with a multicultural mural.

The permanent mural, titled Kings and Queens, is 200 feet long and 9 feet tall. It depicts various faces representing a range of ethnic groups.

“Kings and Queens is a metaphorical reference about ancestry,” said Lynn Parmentier, director for Summit County Youth Employment for Success. “It means that we all came from greatness, and we all have the potential for greatness.”

Mangus designed and sketched the mural, and the youths painted it. Mangus said he learned a lot and enjoyed the project.

“Youth are strong. They learn fast and listen to us in a great way,” he said. “It was wonderful to see (youth) learn to be artists and to see the joy they got from the art.”

The mural was a project of Summit County’s Youth Employment for Success (YES) program. YES is an organization that provides educational support, training and jobs for at-risk middle and high school students, Parmentier said. The organization was awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete this piece of art.

The young artists were YES participants, Coming Together Akron teen board members and Riedinger Middle School English as a Second Language students, Parmentier said.

Mangus planned the layout of the mural for two months; the young artists took about seven days to paint it, he said.

Mangus said he would participate in the mural project again in a second.

“On the first day the kids were saying ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ The second day they asked what they could fill in,” he said. “By the third day they took over painting the thing.”

Contact College of the Arts reporter Emily Cope at [email protected].