The Love Letter

FLIGHT OF THE CHICKADEE

Artists: Cecily Brown, Naila Ansari, Julia Bottoms, Pam Glick, George Hughes, Jodi Lynn Maracle, Jae Skeese, and Sara Zak, along with students from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts

Medium: Paint

Location: Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts

In the Spring of 2021, the UB Arts Collaboratory kicked off our latest Working Artist Lab, part of Bortolami’s Artist/City initiative. Led by Cecily Brown, one of the most renowned painters of our time, the Lab brought together a group of exceptionally talented Buffalo artists and student artists from the Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts. The goal of this diverse band of painters and storytellers: create a new mural to adorn the Academy’s walls—one that would bring joy to the newly reopened city of Buffalo and inspire students for years to come.

The process began at the Arts Collaboratory’s arts incubator, The Space Between. For three days, the artists concepted, sketched, planned and created. If you visit the Space Between website, you can see the art that inspired the mural—from the work of the Mexican muralists to the street art of Sao Paulo.   But the biggest inspiration was the city itself—the flora that grows here, seasons that cycle through, and the people who call Buffalo home. The Flight of the Chickadee mural is a love letter to our city.