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Educational murals embellish juvenile court
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Bare walls at the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center have been replaced by murals portraying what happens in each courtroom.
Community Conscience: A Mural Project is a collaboration among Mahoning County’s juvenile justice center, the McDonough Museum of Art and the Youngstown State University art department. The project received a $2,030 grant from the Ohio Arts Council, which was matched by the museum.
Judge Theresa Dellick said the idea started with Leslie Brothers, director of the McDonough Museum of Art, believing the courtrooms could be made more appealing for the people who come there.
The court and museum then worked with the graphic arts department at Youngstown State University to make the murals a reality.
“One of the things that graphic design does best is social causes,” said Michelle Nelson, YSU assistant professor of graphic design.
The idea was to design each mural to reflect what happens in each respective courtroom. Nelson believes the 12 students, working in groups of three, accomplished that, and Judge Dellick agrees.
Chief Magistrate Richard N. White met with the students, explaining how each courtroom functions. In one, juveniles who are charged with crimes are arraigned. Child support cases are heard in another courtroom while a third is for custody cases.
In one courtroom, called the Judge James McNally Courtroom, for the late juvenile court judge, the mural depicts the cityscape.
Nelson said it sends the message that the actions of those who go to the court impact the city.
The murals were digitally generated using Adobe Illustrator and then printed at a Cleveland-area printing company.
Rather than painted onto the walls, the murals were printed on paper that’s sticky on one side so they may be removed.
The mural in the arraignment courtroom features a person at the entrance of a maze, connected to a path that turns a corner. It tells juveniles who enter that they have a choice in their lives.
In the child-support courtroom, the mural shows five symbols for love, support, home, health and cooperation.
Being a parent is about more than just financial support and so are the cases heard in that courtroom, Judge Dellick said.
“This was a tough one because it’s kind of abstract with lots of elements,” Nelson said.
The courtroom for custody cases features a mural with two hands, each from a parent, cradling a child.
“A child wants both parents,” the judge said.
A billboard on the Madison Avenue Expressway is part of the project as well. Brothers said the billboard, inspired by one of the courtroom murals, is located between YSU and the juvenile justice center to symbolize the collaboration.