MetroNational approached Newspring to create mural art for, and liven up, a new mixed-use project on the northwest corner of the intersection of Gessner Road and the Katy Freeway, and four current Spring Branch ISD students or Spring Branch ISD alums are working on the project.

MetroNational is a privately held real estate investment, development and management company headquartered in Houston whose core interest is mixed-use developments in Memorial City.

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Newspring is a community-based non-profit whose mission is “delivering visual arts and life-skills mentoring programs that inspire students and their families to achieve a better life.”

“We have been creative collaborators with Newspring for many years,” said Jason Johnson, President of MetroNational. “We support Newspring’s free Visual Arts program that fosters academic achievement and career opportunities for underserved high school and college students from Spring Branch. It was a natural fit for MetroNational to engage artists in our own community and encourage their budding talent.”

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The four people working on the the mural — called “Stained Glass Butterflies” — are Alisson Terreros (Westchester Academy class of 2022), who also designed the mural, Daniela Cruz (Northbrook High School class of 2018), Aileen Fuentes Martinez (Northbrook High School Class of 2020) and Selene Peralta (YES Prep Northbrook High School class of 2021).

Newspring Director of Development Katie Fields said those people were chosen based on their talent and their involvement in Newspring arts programming.

The four are also working with professional muralist Melissa Eason, and Fields likes that they are learning a new artistic skill to use.

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“Newspring is excited to have this opportunity with MetroNational to put the spotlight on some of our amazingly talented students,” said Fields. “For them to be able to learn from Melissa Eason, who is a professional sign painter, and glean knowledge from her experiences in art as a trade is priceless.”

Terreros said she was both excited and nervous when seeing the size of the project, which will span 90 feet along the seat wall in front of the courtyard at behind Torchy’s Tacos and Mia’s Table..

If there is good weather, the team plans to have the project finished on July 30.

To learn more about Newspring, visit https://newspringcenter.org. To learn more about MetroNational, visit www.metronational.com.

elliott.lapin@hearst.com