Galvan, who grew up in Berwyn, painted the mural on the Youth Crossroads building. “We gotta have a strategy. That’s something I didn’t have growing up,” he says.
As Chicago artist Isaac Galvan painted a giant mural on a wall of Berwyn’s Youth Crossroads building, he says he was thinking about growing up.
“When I was a kid, I was a graffiti writer,” he says. “That was my after-school activity.”
Galvan grew up partly in Berwyn, and the man who connected him with Youth Crossroads for the organization’s newest mural was a longtime friend of his mother. He says he didn’t have the opportunities that places like Youth Crossroads offer kids, like tutoring, leadership and job training.
For the organization’s 50th anniversary, Galvan painted the mural, which is 90 feet wide and 15 feet tall and covers an entire wall. He says it portrays the success he hopes Youth Crossroads will help students find.
Titled “Youthful Expressions,” “it represents Youth Crossroads’ three core pillars of service: guide, support and inspire,” Galvan says.
Galvan used his graffiti skills to move into doing murals and studio artwork.
