Stuyvesant Plans Chorus Hallway Art Project

One may soon see the chorus hallway, located on the first floor, decorated with art. Health and physical education teacher Dr. Anna Markova has initiated a painting project to take place in the hallway by the music classrooms. While the project is still in its early stages, it plans to incorporate student designs and collaborate with professional artists to paint the hallway with musical themes.

The initiative was partially inspired by and will be similar to already existing murals throughout the school. “The pilot is our fifth floor mural created by Japanese street artist Shiro,” Dr. Markova said in an e-mail interview. “She also did a beautiful mural in our spin studio.”

Dr. Markova will be collaborating with choral director Liliya Shamazov on the project. “[Dr.] Markova came to me a couple of weeks ago proposing this idea of enlivening, reviving the hallway in the first floor, in a music theme,” Shamazov said. “We briefly spoke about possibilities for the designs because basically, this floor mostly has music, at least in this area of the school, classes, so we thought it would be a cool idea to paint it [...] around music themes.”

One of Shamazov’s roles in this project is spreading the word of the planned painting to students as student input and creations will be crucial to the project. “We could always ask outside artists for ideas, but it’s better if our own students, especially music students, maybe even art students, [...] actually design the ideas, and maybe [the painting] could be either all of [the designs] put together, or some of the best ones will be chosen [to be incorporated],” she said.

Dr. Markova and Shamazov hope that student contributions can add a more personalized, welcoming touch to the school. “We have very many talented [students] who can paint and draw, so they can use their talents in decorating our school and make it more ‘user friendly,’” Dr. Markova said.

Though the project is still in its first steps, Dr. Markova and Shamazov anticipate that when complete, it can brighten the first floor hallways and represent a celebration of music at Stuyvesant. “If we could have walls with music symbols, music notes, something that celebrates music, and maybe different colors, [...] it might put a smile on your face. So hopefully it will be something that makes the hallways come alive a little bit,” Shamazov said. “It’s a beginning, [the] initial steps of what could potentially be a really fun thing.”