Artist Gilbert Young And GEAR UP Students Celebrate Mural Unveiling

Students from the Cincinnati Public Schools, their families, representatives of CPS and UC joined internationally renowned artist Gilbert Young at a special reception to highlight a mural that was created through the local GEAR UP partnership. The reception was held Nov.5 in the Annie Laws Drawing Room at the University of Cincinnati’s Teachers College.

The mural is both a visual and personal example of how GEAR UP’s CHARACTER COUNTS! Curriculum embodies the six “pillars of character” of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. For six weeks, Young guided 30 students from the Cincinnati Public Schools as the mural took shape inside a studio at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Young also toured 18 schools in the GEAR UP partnership to speak with hundreds of students about his own experience of growing up in Cincinnati and his art career. He also gave motivational presentations on how students could plan for the achievement of their own dreams.

Young, a former conservator of the UC fine arts collection, is best known for his painting titled, “He Ain’t Heavy,” which features the muscular arm of an African American man reaching over a wall to lift another man up. He told the GEAR UP students that the painting, created 25 years ago, stands as a reminder to help those in need. “You never know who you may touch and who might grow up to take your place. This is what I try to give back – inspiring people to help each other.”

GEAR UP, short for “Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs,” is a federally funded partnership that reaches students in 17 Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), providing programming to encourage students to continue their education through college. The local $2.2 million partnership is comprised of UC, CPS, Cincinnati State, the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities, and Cincinnati Parents for Public Schools.

The mural is set to tour the schools that participated in its creation, before it gets a permanent setting at UC.