CLEVELAND, Ohio - Darius Steward, a mid-career artist on the rise in Cleveland, recently installed what may be his largest work yet - a 200-foot-long, 6-foot-high mural mounted on the Euclid Avenue bridge over the Inner Belt.
The big mural, together with a 40-foot-long companion piece on the north side of the bridge, comprise a $32,500 project undertaken by Campus District Inc., and Midtown Inc., the non-profit development corporations leading redevelopment between Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Clinic.
Both murals are mounted on chain link fences that overlook the Inner Belt.
They were made by digitally scanning original watercolors by Steward and printing the images on pvc-coated polyester mesh that looks opaque when viewed from a distance, but semi-transparent when viewed up close.
The mural project is entitled "Breaker of Chains," and depict children and adults representing the diversity of the student body at CSU and the surrounding neighborhood, along with the idea of tearing down the barriers that disconnect people, Jeff Epstein, Midtown's executive director, wrote in an email.
In addition to students at CSU, the mural portrays students at Cuyahoga Community College and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's Campus International School, many of whom are international students, children of refugee families, or are Dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and whose status remains unresolved by Congress.
In a practical sense, the project is meant to improve the appearance and safety of the bridge, a long overlooked connection between the eastern edge of the CSU campus and the businesses and institutions to the east along the Midtown section of Euclid Avenue.
Epstein said that as part of the project, 5th Ward Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland helped persuade Cleveland Public Power to illuminate the pole-mounted lights on the Euclid Avenue bridge.
The lights had been left dark since the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's 2008 completion of the Euclid Avenue bus rapid transit HealthLine.
Cleveland also contributed $20,000 from her ward's share of Casino Revenue Fund money to help pay for the Steward Mural. The remaining $12,500 came from the nonprofit Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.
Steward, who teaches art at St. Ignatius High School, often paints children at play or carrying luggage in images that can be taken as simple observations of everyday life or as scenes with deeper symbolic meanings about race in America.
Steward's credits include participating in the Red Line Inter | Urban mural project in 2016, and exhibiting in the "Constant as the Sun" exhibition in 2017 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Steward is one of 12 Northeast Ohio artists participating in the FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, opening July 14.