A new mural for PS 676

Red Hook now has a whale-themed mural at the intersection of Nelson and Columbia streets.

The mural is aimed at improving the intersection while further boosting the awareness of local students about their community.

The artist who created mural was Annabelle Popa. She has painted several murals around the city and outside of the city. A ribbon-cutting was held by PS 676, which oversaw the project. Principal Priscilla Figueroa addressed the crowd.

“This mural will make sure that when we cross the streets for fire drills and when you walk around this neighborhood, you can walk in this area and be safe,” Figueroa said. “This is how this whole partnership started with DOT. Now it is an art project. It is allowing us to learn more about marine life. It allows us to work with PortSide, it allows us to work with Gotham, it allows us to learn more about animals.”

According to Figueroa, kids at PS 676 can already name many different types of whales. When she said that the students will be able to talk to teachers about adopting pets for the classroom, all the kids screamed in excitement.

Figueroa sees this mural, which the Department of Transportation (DOT) commissioned, as one that can truly kickoff a maritime theme in the classrooms and connect it to the outside world.

This mural is based on an illustration that’s on a postcard, but Popa redesigned it a little to fit the space in the open area near the sidewalk. She made the mural more relevant by changing the boat to the Mary Whalen, an oil tanker that sits in the Atlantic Basin.

PS 676 has embraced the maritime theme with the adoption of whales through Gotham Whale. They have also adopted with the World Wildlife Fund.

“The students will understand the importance of adopting whales and begin to learn more about whales – where they live, their habitats, why they are becoming extinct,” Figueroa said. “They are part of our water’s ecosystem and we have to make sure that our students become connected just like Annabelle said. Our teachers are working diligently on incorporating projects into their curriculum and their units of study.”

This maritime initiative incorporates the school’s core values. The school’s values include empathy, respect, curiosity, integrity, and courage. Their new core value this year is social adaptability, where students learn how to adjust their social behavior based on where they are.

Karen Broughton, representing Assistant Speaker of the New York State Assembly Felix Ortiz, said, “This is great for Red Hook because it is stretching our boundaries to where, when we partner with other people, we can bring in programs that will expand the community and expand our children’s minds and they will go places that they did never think of before.”

Leroy Branch, who works in the Brooklyn commissioner’s officer at DOT, talked about how this intersection used to be dangerous and how this mural is a great improvement for the area.

“We are putting Red Hook on the map,” Branch said. “It is a beautiful day to come out here and talk about safety. As a Red Hook resident, and someone who has run across this street many times, we want to make it safe for you so that when you go back and forth to school it is safe for you to cross the street. With this beautiful mural here, it brings inside the school ideas about saving our environment and saving whales.”

Nathan Weiser