At Gabby Gottfried’s senior project event, Music for Murals, on May 23, students will be able to “make their mark” both physically and economically. Whether it’s outlining your hand on a student made mural or donating money to promote arts in Mexico, according to Gabby, every student who attends will leave their mark.
According to Gabby, Music For Murals will be an event in the West Cafeteria at 7:30 with live music, cultural/awareness club activities, and a student body-made mural. The proceeds will go to an organization called Arquetopia, they fund art projects for underprivileged neighborhoods in Mexico.
“The whole tagline of this is ‘make your mark’ because we’re not only making an economic mark on mexico and helping out on the community level but were also sending this student body made mural to them, that makes its own mark by connecting people and thats what I really want this to come back to,” Gabby said.
The clubs will be Face AIDS, Interact, Unidos, Chinese Club, some girls doing henna, Relay for Life, Stand for peace, Emma Bigelow, and GSA. Interact will be selling bracelets, Chinese will be selling special shaved ice, Emma Bigelow will be selling scarves for self harm awareness, Relay for Life will do human bowling, Stand will be selling shirts. The Alleykats, Michael Colon, No Strings Attached, Gary Z’s Jazz Trio, Bad Reputation, Spit the Dummy, Jimmy Friedman, Paul Tisch, and Will Gingrinch, Ishe, Sun Soaked Spirits, Health Potion.
The mural will have a banner across it, and students will outline their hands during the concert for a dollar. Gabby will then roll up this student made mural and send it to the charity (arquetopia) in Mexico along with her proceeds from the night.
Admission is $5 at the door or you can buy a unique “music for murals bracelet” for $5 to get in–all proceeds will go to Arquetopia charity.
Arquetopia is a non profit organization for youth in Mexico who have neither the money nor resources to express themselves through art. This program helps to give children the training and supplies to create art, such as murals, in an impoverished community.
“For my senior project I wanted to explore the music industry because that’s going to be my major next year, but I also wanted to do something charity oriented,” Gabby said. “I just really love this organization, I thought it was a really down to earth organization and really liked what they do.”
Although this is Gabby’s senior project and it represents what she’s passionate about she says she wants everyone who’s involved to make it their own and collectively everyone can be apart of the big picture.
“This is doing a good job of showing who I am because this is just such a cool multicultural, multilateral thing that helps in a little and big way and that’s the way that I like to think,” Gabby said
According to Gabby’s mom, Gayle Gottfried, this event has been a lot of work but it’s going to be a good bridge from a high school experience to her future college experience. She also commented that she thinks this event completely sums up Gabby’s high school experience.
“She’s been passionate about music for a really long time and I think she’s passionate about this too,” Gayle said. “You know it’s just a really great way for her to end her high school career by bringing people together and I think altruistically it feels good to be able to help people at the same time.”
According to Gabby, she’s always been interesting in the music business and the inspiration for the idea for “Music for Murals” came from the people she’s met and knows.
“I met a manager from Northbrook [Jake Udell] who manages Krewella, an electronic music band [that is from GBN],” Gabby said. “He let me go with him to a concert once and watch from the stage; he really inspired me and told me even if you come from a small suburb you can do whatever you want if you are resourceful and you think outside the box.”
Gabby’s mentor for the project, Aaron Wojcik, said that 55 hours is the required amount of time for the senior projects and she went above and beyond that.
“She really has just picked this idea up and ran with it,” Wojcik said. “She would have done “Music for Murals” or some other form of it no matter if there was a senior project or not because this is something that is close to her.”
According to senior Phoebe Hebson, interact club board member, she thinks Gabby’s senior project is very unique in that not only is her event organized to help her go into her future career but it’s also a unique service project that involves the whole school.
“I think I want people to take away that you can be involved in a way that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re painting a house or volunteering at a hospital,” Hebson said. “There’s other ways for kids to be involved and I think this is a unique aspect of that world for people to see.”
Not only will students get to experience this side of charity, but, according to Gabby, she also wants them to experience different cultures at “Music for Murals”.
“I want the school to have a really great time at this event. It’s interesting because you don’t see the chinese club, the Unidos club, and all these other clubs in the same room all the time and that could make something really cool happen with all these people from these different backgrounds,” Gabby said. “Then I want to raise enough money to help make a notable mural happen in an underprivileged city in Mexico, and it almost makes our cultures closer because we give the gift of art and the resources to create.”
According to Gayle, Gabby has always been interested in other cultures and now she’s giving students at GBS an opportunity to see for themselves if they share that interest.
“Gabby’s really big into diversity and she loves the fact that people can not know anything about a culture and then learn everything, and here’s an opportunity for people to share and people to learn,” Gayle said. “GBS has so many talented people in so many ways so it’s cool that they can all come together at this concert.”
According to Wojcik, he has high hopes for Gabby’s senior project as well as for when she goes off to college next year.
“I think this is a fantastic legacy to leave GBS with,” Wojcik said. “She’s taken on a lot and she’s starting off a lot things with this. I think she’s going to kind of change the game of senior projects.”
