By Paul Thompson
Northeast News

This week on the Northeast Newscast, managing editor Paul Thompson talks with Kansas City Art Institute Assistant Professor of Illustration – and architect of the Scarritt Mural project – Hector Casanova.

Casanova discusses his relationship with the Historic Northeast; the genesis of the mural project at Scarritt Elementary; what it felt like to have the project defaced over the summer; where he and his students will focus their artistic talents next; and how Kansas City’s embrace of the artistic community can lead to community growth and economic development. If you’ve followed the work of Casanova and his students over the past few years, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Casanova was especially well-spoken when discussing what he would say to the vandals who tagged the Scarritt Elementary mural panels over the spring and summer.

“I understand having an impulse to make your mark on the world; that’s why I’m an artist,” Casanova said. “That’s why any of us are artists, because all of us have this impulse to have an impact and to shape this world that we live in. Ultimately, that’s what tagging is: it’s making a mark on the world. But what I’d like to urge the people that are doing this to do is to understand that there’s ways that you can make that mark and be celebrated for it.”

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