Ward 3 Gem
by Ernesto Portillo, Ward 3 Council Aide
There is a large, colorful mural on the wall of S&K Market in
the Miracle Manor neighborhood. It is a 10-year-old iconic mural with
various representative images of the rich history of this small niche in
Ward 3. But more than a mural, it was a seed that helped launch
Tucson’s mural movement over the recent years.
“This mural...initiated the city-wide mural movement. When we
started almost nobody wanted murals,” said Michael Schwartz, the mural
artist whose name is painted in the lower left corner on the
north-facing wall of the market at 2520 N. 15th Ave. But
really, he added, the mural’s creators were many people, young and old,
from the neighborhood. The mural emerged from an extensive
intergenerational, after-school series of workshops and interviews.
“People voted on every single element in that mural. The neighbors
literally cast ballots,” he said. “I acted as the lead artist and
painted their mural.”
At the core of the mural is more than paint on a brick wall. It is
about community engagement and cultural development, and building
community identity in the neighborhood bounded by Miracle Mile on the
north, Grant Road on the south, Oracle on the east and Fairview on the
west.
The mural project began in early September 2009. It was one of five
demonstration art projects sponsored by the Tucson Arts Brigade. The
Miracle Manor Neighborhood Association proposed the mural and it was
developed and created in collaboration with the Youth Empowerment
Services Network. It was completed in April 2010.
The images in the mural include the sign for the Ghost Ranch and
Lodge Restaurant, whose sign was designed by artist Georgia O’Keefe and
El Rey, both which represent the smattering of small motor lodges that
had sprung up on Miracle Mile and Oracle Road, the northern entrance to
Tucson, before the coming of the freeway. There is John Wayne on the big
screen of the now-gone Biltmore/Miracle Mile Drive-in theater and E. C.
Nash Elementary School, opened in 1960 and named after the first
superintendent of the Amphitheater School District. And there is a
neighbor looking out from her window admiring the birds, a rabbit,
oranges on a tree, flowers. The image is reflective of the area’s early
rural character. The mural is topped off with fluffy bunny-shaped clouds
soaring above purple mountains and a radiating sky.
"Back in the late 1940s and early '50s when the neighborhood was
being developed, residents who still lived here from that time offered
up information for the history of the neighborhood," said Marsha Quinn,
in a story in the Arizona Daily Star, published on Oct. 22, 2012. Quinn,
a neighborhood resident who was involved in the mural project, added,
"We really wanted to have the mural be meaningful to the neighborhood,
and the seniors really had a lot of input."
Some of those neighbors involved in the project were Henry and
Alicia Garcia, Sandi Mittelstaedt, Mickey Ethington, Dee Brunner, Gene
Dickens, Mario Gonzalez, Oscar Bojorquez, Kathy Johnson, according to
the Daily Star story.
The project’s history and creation is collected in this
internet site.
For Chankiry Chhang, owner of the S&K Market for the past 17 years, the mural has been nothing but positive.
“It was better than a blank wall,” he said as he admired the mural
Thursday afternoon. He has had no problems with graffiti on the mural.
He said that people from outside the neighborhood come to the store to
admire it and take photos of the mural. “Everybody comes,” he said. “It
makes me feel proud.”
