The halls of Las Vegas Academy of the Arts (LVA) are adorned with nearly twenty vibrant murals, each telling a unique story of student creativity and evolution over the years.
One of these murals on the side wall of the cafeteria was installed in 2010 using airbrushes and spray paint. The piece was created by Kurt Chang, a formal visual arts student at LVA, who has gone on to become a successful illustrator and graphic artist. See his current works on his website.
In an email, Chang describes his process and provides progress shots. The mural was installed by three people in one week over spring break, he says.
Since then, the way students install murals at LVA has evolved.
“We went on a scissor lift,” said Siew Chin Thai, a graphic design junior on the installation team for a series of new murals in 2021. “We did it in the Knapp area above the print shop – it was really fun. (Stroud) taught us that when we put up the murals, we have to peel off the liner first, and then place it where we want it, and then we use the squeegees to lay it down at an angle.”
Since the transition to in person school post-COVID-19, mural installations have been streamlined and modernized. In the print shop, huge-scale printers print out copies of students’ works by the pixel onto a peelable vinyl material. Teams of students instructed by Mrs. Stroud work to install them with squeegees, rollers, and heat guns.
The installation of murals at LVA come in waves, the most recent being in 2023.
“I was working on the one on the side of the gym, I installed some of the ones in Post, I helped with some of the ones in the theater. And I helped with the one in the entrance to Main. I mostly helped cut, I trimmed, and then I hung up some of them,” Sami Estefania Ramirez-Gomez, another junior graphic design major, said.
The murals the mounting team worked on in 2021 were designed by LVA students in a competition during COVID-19 for LVA’s thirty year anniversary.
“Most of them have graduated,” Ramirez-Gomez said. “But it was a couple years ago, and they only got to putting them up the year we (This year’s graphic design III class) got here.”
She notes that the murals are low resolution, because some of the students at the time were working from home and had to take their own pictures. The artwork had to be photoshopped to balance lighting, angle, & quality.
Though the graphic design program – with others – is being integrated into one major, the program has streamlined the process of art installation and shared the charming works of students who have since graduated.
