Session: Protest + Print, Spring 2025

Artists: 9 high school students

Materials: 12 acrylic paint colors, various sizes of brushes and rollers, painter’s tape for clean lines, drop cloths, ladder, pencil, paint trays and cups, stirring sticks, aprons, projector, collapsible folding cart, shoe covers

Description:

A few blocks from the Girls Garage workshop, our Protest + Print students took on transforming the back wall of Truitt & White Lumber Co. into a larger-than-life celebration of tradeswomxn, their most ambitious public art project to date! Over the course of the spring session, and under the expert guidance of instructor Alex Bowman with support from Miriam Klein Stahl, students designed and painted nine figures, each one wielding tools, building, and creating. Every figure was personalized by the student who painted it, becoming both a self-portrait and a tribute to the women and gender-expansive builders who inspire them.

Titled “Building Together,” the mural radiates bold color and energy into Berkeley’s industrial neighborhood. It’s a love letter to craft, community, and the power of youth voices in public space. See it for yourself at 640 Hearst Ave, on the west side of Warehouse 2.