Concept Meeting for Immigration Mural at BCC - #2

Name: Concept Meeting for Immigration Mural at BCC - #2
Start: 2025-09-24T16:00:00-04:00
Location: Pitkin Education Building, Room S-134, 400 Paramus Rd, Paramus, NJ, United States, New Jersey 07652

Schedule

Wed, 24 Sep, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Pitkin Education Building, Room S-134, 400 Paramus Rd, Paramus, NJ, United States, New Jersey 07652 | Paramus, NJ

Second of two open public meetings:
Gallery Bergen Solicits Ideas for a New Mural about Immigration
Community mural project led by award-winning artist, Layqa Nuna Yawar
Two public meetings with the artist to be held for input on the design:
Hackensack, Ciarco Learning Center, September 22
Paramus, BCC Main Campus, September 24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Gallery Bergen, the visual arts presentation space of Bergen Community College has received a grant from Bergen County for the design and installation of a public mural on the theme of immigration. The mural will be placed in the lobby of the Pitkin Education Center on the Paramus campus of Bergen Community College. The award-winning Newark-based artist, Layqa Nuna Yawar has been engaged to lead the design, execution and installation of the mural. Layqa's past work includes large murals at Newark Liberty and Munich International Airports.
Gallery Bergen will hold two public meetings to solicit ideas for imagery and concepts for the mural. The first is to be held on September 22, 5:00 p.m., at the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center at 355 Main Street in Hackensack, Room CLC 102/103.. The second is scheduled for Bergen Community College's Paramus campus on September 24 at 4:00 pm in the Pitkin Education Building, Room S-134.
Mr. Nuna Yawar will present his concept for the mural for public discussion at an open meeting at the BCC Paramus campus on October 22 at 4:00 p.m. The community is invited to submit ideas and concept drawings/images through this link: BCC Immigration Mural Project.
The mural will be installed in the Pitkin Education Building between November 24 and 26. All are invited to participate.
About Layqa Nuna Yawar:
Layqa Nuna Yawar (b. 1984, Cuenca Ecuador) is a public artist and multidisciplinary storyteller based in the ancestral lands of the Lenni-Lenape: current-day Newark, NJ. His work is best known for large-scale community-based murals, intricate portrait paintings, and multimedia projects that center the complex narratives of immigrant, black, indigenous, and subaltern populations. His artwork aims to disrupt established semiotic systems and reimagine them in service of shared liberation and a better future.
Layqa's name is an invention that honors the Kichwa-Kañari legacy of his descent. His practice is driven by the act of reclaiming history as well as the inherent rupture and repair of the immigrant experience. His work exists at the intersection between migrant alienation and belonging, cross-cultural identity and decolonization, and between the private and the public realms.
His work has been recently commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Munich Airport NJ, in partnership with Public Art Fund and can be permanently found at the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport. His collaborative work is also now on view at MoMA PS1 in New York City. Other Recent awards include an Artist Impact Award from the Newark Museum of Art, Monument Lab Research Residency, a Creative Catalyst Fund Fellowship by the City of Newark, an Art Changemaker Award from the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and a Moving Walls Fellowship by Open Society Foundations among others. Layqa has held multiple teaching residencies, including projects with the United Nations World Food Programme, Casita Maria, and currently teaches at Rutgers University. His murals can be found in cities and communities around the world.
Gallery Bergen is located at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ, just 10 miles from NYC. The gallery regularly presents major contemporary artists in all media.
gallery.bergen.edu