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Mural for Slain Hunter College Social Work Student Finds New Home

By Amy Zimmer | August 15, 2011 7:21am | Updated on August 15, 2011 9:02am
Abbe Bassin, Angelica Otero, Katie Magee, Sarah Morrison, Molly Hyoujung Bidol, Angelly Cardenas, Deb Bernardino, Tara Butler, Dean Jacqueline Mondros and Chana Widawski have continued to keep their former classmate, Amy Watkins' legacy alive more than a decade after her murder.
Abbe Bassin, Angelica Otero, Katie Magee, Sarah Morrison, Molly Hyoujung Bidol, Angelly Cardenas, Deb Bernardino, Tara Butler, Dean Jacqueline Mondros and Chana Widawski have continued to keep their former classmate, Amy Watkins' legacy alive more than a decade after her murder.
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Amy Watkins Scholarship Committee

MANHATTAN — The Hunter College School of Social Work's offices and classrooms have been packed up and moved 40 blocks from its Upper East Side home to a $135 million state-of-the-art facility in East Harlem.

But one item in the school, in particular, merited special attention.

Former students wanted to make sure the new building had a home for a mural painted in 1999 in memory of Amy Watkins, a 26-year-old Hunter student from Kansas who was stabbed to death in Brooklyn on her way home from working at a domestic violence shelter in The Bronx.

"There was always a question about whether the mural would be moved," said Chana Widawski, who was in a community organizing class with Watkins and is now a field advisor at the social work school.

"As with any large institution, we were scared it could slip through the cracks."

But the school's administration was on board immediately.

"I'm glad to say — and not so surprised — our intentions were well received," Widawski said. "The school showed a real commitment to moving it."

The abstract mural had been painted on a canvas and hung in a student lounge on the fourth floor of the school's building at 129 E. 79th Street — where a 210-foot luxury tower will be built.

Watkins' former classmates took a tour with school officials and the building's architects in early August at the new space on East 119th and Third Avenue to scout a new location for the work. They found a "significantly more prominent" wall in a main hallway on the third floor of the "stupendous" new building, Widawski said.

Widawski and other former students — who also started the Amy Watkins Scholarship Fund to keep their friends' legacy alive — are planning an official ceremony in November to commemorate the mural's installation.

Watkins' death shook the city after she was stabbed in the back and robbed in Prospect Heights. It also inspired her former classmates to roll up their sleeves, which remain rolled up more than a decade later.

"As soon as Amy was killed, our initial reaction as organizers, in addition to grieving, was to take action," Widawski said.

"So much time has passed, and I think a number of us remain really involved with Hunter and each other and in community organizing because of Amy."

Watkins had been working on a mural with domestic violence survivors at The Bronx's New Settlement Apartments at the time of her death, which is why her classmates decided to make a mural in her honor. They found a Hunter College art student to draw the outlines and then invited the community, friends and family to paint it.

"We used the same model Amy used" with the mural she had been creating in The Bronx, Widawski said. "It was what Amy was all about."

The scholarship they set up in her name has raised more than $100,000 to date and continues to provide need-based funding to students pursuing their Masters of Social Work in community organizing.

"I don't know if I'd maintain my serious involvement with Hunter if it weren't for my involvement with the scholarship," Widawski said. "Definitely we've gotten to know the incoming students."

Though the fund can only provide partial scholarships, the group running it hopes to one day be able to offer full tuition and hopes to reignite the fundraising campaign at their mural ceremony.

They raised a lot more money than Professor Steve Burghardt — who taught Watkins' community organizing class of 18 women in 1999 — ever thought they could.

"As a professor, I had no idea what to do or how to teach the course," Burghardt said of the aftermath of Watkins' death.

"It was an issue — what do we do to allow all of us to grieve and make some meaning out of what happened. …I was saying let's be modest.  We need to raise money for a scholarship, but if you raise $3,000 or $5,000 that would be great."

Watkins' classmates wanted to reach for $25,000.

"They proved me happily wrong," said Burghardt, who remained impressed with the former students' continued doggedness.

The first year, they raised $30,000, including $10,000 from Yoko Ono, who later gave another $10,000, and who Burghardt would like to invite to the November ceremony.

"Amy was greatly committed to art," said Burghardt.

He recalled the original mural ceremony as "very moving" and he looked forward to the next one.

"It is a remarkable work," he said. "The administration was very supportive of moving it from the beginning.

"I was paranoid because I don't trust authority still," he said with a laugh.

"But they're doing it with great integrity. They see it as important in the history of the school and with the work the school wants to be involved in with the community of East Harlem."

For more information about the Amy Watkins Scholarship Fund, contact: amywatkinsscholarship@gmail.com.