Senior Ben Logan’s passion for art was on display this summer when he used funds earned as the recipient of the Alex Cohn Explore Grant to restore three Shepard Fairey Murals around the Boston area and create his own mural for display in a local school.
Named in memory of Alex Cohn ’07 and made possible by members of the Kaplan and Cohn families, the Alex Cohn Explore Grant is awarded to a rising junior or senior for an experiential, hands-on program or course of study to explore a passion for a particular topic or activity outside of school.
Shepard Fairey, best known for his Barak Obama “Hope” poster and his “Obey” series, sent Ben new prints of the murals to replace the ones that were showing wear from age. Along with a few assistants, Ben set about restoring murals at Harvard Square, Tufts University, and Central Square.
He also had to work with real estate executives to gain permission to work on the murals which were on privately-owned buildings. Ben had to convince these individuals to take him, a high school senior, seriously.
In addition to working on the Shepard Fairey murals, Ben also designed an original mural for the Epiphany School in Dorchester, MA. He wanted to create a tribute to the founder of the school, Jennifer Daly, so he took photos of the students and used them to create a mosaic portrait of her. The mural now permanently hangs at Epiphany School.
The biggest thing Ben took away from this experience was that “life is messy.” He learned that it is important to be able to adapt to whatever causes a plan to be changed, and to be assertive to get what you need.
To learn more about the project, watch a video of Ben’s presentation at an upper school Tuesday Forum.
Top Photo: A completed restoration at Tufts University.