Various groups of Artistic Baccalaureate students from the IES Maria Belen Morales Gomez of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are making a mural dedicated to the sculptress that gives its center its name in the pedestrian passage that the City Council labeled in her honor.
The activity started on May 16 with a mural intervention dedicated to the sculptor who, since 2021, has given its name to the old center of Ofra, also known as the Red Institute. In this way, various groups of students have approached the Passage Maria Belen Moralesa pedestrian street located between Avenida de Madrid and the well-known Rambla de los Reyes Católicos in the capital, adjacent to Plaza El Chapatal, to make a mural that they intend to finish in his honor on Canary Islands Day.
During the present academic year, the students of the center located in Ofra have worked on the adaptation and free interpretation of Alfabeto del aire, a long-meditated project by the outstanding sculptor from the capital. In this way, the wish of María Belén Morales (1928-2016) will be fulfilled, and in the passage that bears her name at the initiative of the Municipal Council of Women of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The work Alfabeto del aire emerged in the 1990s, at which time the expressive language of the Tenerife artist was consolidated around a series of forms that she built by transforming flat silhouettes that she folded to achieve more complex figures.
The students have worked with the same technique to achieve new forms, new characters to express themselves with the universal language of art. This initiative of the School Council of the IES María Belén Morales is part of a transversal project for the subjects of Audiovisual Culture, Artistic Projects and Volume.
Students and teachers of the Artistic Baccalaureate of María Morales. / Fran Pallero
Students and teachers of the Artistic Baccalaureate of María Morales. / Fran Pallero
Since last May 16, the activity of this collective project has moved to the side wall of the Plaza del Chapatal where the students are performing their interpretation of this work. In this way, the center makes known the excellent results that the implementation of the Artistic Baccalaureate is obtaining, as well as its commitment to the irradiation of art as a social good.
In addition, classrooms, corridors and facades of the building are being covered by mural interventions by students, turning it into a true museum of young creativity, using techniques typical of street art.
A pertinent intervention, as a tribute to the sculptor who gives its name to the María Belén Morales Secondary School, in accordance with the motto of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) this 2023, in which it states that “museums contribute fundamentally to the well-being and to the sustainable development of our communities”.
The educational community wants to bring culture to the Ofra neighborhood and decentralize it, making it the epicenter of a movement that seeks a new connection between the languages of current art and citizenship. “Undoubtedly, from art, education and culture much can be done to achieve greater well-being in our society, to eliminate inequalities and achieve greater social inclusion”, they point out from the center.
Morales stood out for his great sculptural and pictorial facet, a benchmark of contemporary art, and for his work in the development of the cultural movement on the Island as recorded among the merits for the posthumous award of the Gold Medal of Tenerife. She was a councilor for the Santa Cruz City Council, a member of the Cultural Heritage area, an active participant in the Circulo de Bellas Artes, the II Street Sculpture Symposium, as well as an academic at the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts or Member of the Advisory Council of the Óscar Institute. Dominguez of Art.
