Fine Arts Student Fernanda Contreras Wins LaGuardia Community Greenway Street Mural Design Contest
LONG ISLAND CITY, NY (June 3, 2025) — Fernanda Contreras, a Fine Arts student at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, has won first place in the LaGuardia Community Greenway Street Mural Contest with her design, Keep It Movin’!! A total of 29 entries were submitted, and over 2,500 votes were cast by students, faculty, staff, and members of the Queens community.
Fernanda’s winning design will be featured on tote bags and other marketing materials promoting the LaGuardia Community Greenway, the outdoor community space on 29th Street between Skillman to 47th Avenues.
“Our heartfelt congratulations to Fernanda Contreras on winning the Street Mural Contest for the LaGuardia Community Greenway! We’re proud that the winning design came from one of our own Fine Arts students,” says Kenneth Adams, President of LaGuardia Community College. “We thank Council Member Julie Won and NYC’s Department of Transportation (DOT) for supporting the Greenway through the Open Streets program and are grateful to the Long Island City Partnership for helping get the word out about this contest.”
Fernanda’s winning design features colorful walking signals, symbolizing New York’s walkability and the five subway lines—7, G, E, F, and R/N/W—that run through Long Island City. Fernanda also took home third place for Rhythm to Our Walk.
“Winning the Street Mural Contest is a huge deal for me; the fact that it will be in a place that has always been home has a special place in my heart,” says Fernanda, 20, who lives in Woodside, Queens, near where she grew up with her Ecuadorian family. She received LaGuardia swag and gift cards for her win.
After high school, Fernanda was accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) but chose LaGuardia for its affordability and supportive faculty. Fernanda balances full-time studies with a full-time job as a gate agent at LaGuardia Airport. She plans to pursue a career in graphic design and hopes to transfer to NYU Tisch or SAIC after graduating in Spring 2026.
Fernanda credits Fine Arts professor and Humanities-Visual Arts Program Director Dahlia Elsayed, along with Professor Brian Zegeer, for their support and guidance.
Professor Elsayed praised the Street Mural Contest as a rare and valuable experience for an undergraduate. “This project connects directly to our curriculum—technical skills, presentation, and professional practices,” she says. “Public art shapes the daily experience of thousands, and this mural will do just that.”
LaGuardia is working with the DOT, Open Streets, and the Long Island City Partnership (LICP) to install Fernanda’s winning design on 29th street. The street will be cleaned and prepped in late June 2025, with painting set to begin in early July. Students from the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), along with LaGuardia students, faculty, staff, and community volunteers, will help complete the mural by the end of August. Professor Elsayed and Fine Arts Professor Arianne Fernandez will lead the project, working with Fernanda and the volunteers on priming, painting, and finalizing the mural on the LaGuardia Community Greenway.
The Top Five Street Mural Designs:
First Place—Keep It Movin’!! by Fernanda Contreras (918 votes). See description above.
Second Place—Abstract design by Fine Arts major Kathia Segura Villalobos (517 votes). “This piece was inspired by my family—especially my husband, a born and raised Queens-native. It also draws from the vibrant colors that reflect the cultural richness of Queens and LaGuardia Community College, where people from diverse backgrounds come together to form a unified, multicultural community.”
Third Place—Rhythm to Our Walk by Fernanda Contreras (479 votes). “This design uses the same color palette in Keep It Movin!! to reference the subway lines in Long Island City, while paying tribute to 5Pointz with a graffiti-style background,” she describes.
Fourth Place—Abstract NYC cityscape by local Queens artist Franck Hodelin (332 votes). “In this abstracted representation of the New York cityscape, perspectives shift as you look up from street level and down from above,” he describes. “From its towering spires to its modest duplex homes, to the hustle of the bridges and trains, there is a kinetic energy that is constantly in motion and changing, and is always uniquely New York.”
Fifth Place—Blooming by Fine Arts major Lylah De Jesus (322 votes). “The inspiration of my piece is spring and growth. Since this mural is in front of a place where growth happens in many forms, the mural reflects the spirit of LaGuardia—a growing community where we all blossom together.”
President Adams noted that the mural will enhance the Greenway and the surrounding community. “Street murals beautify public spaces, foster identity, and promote social and economic growth,” he says.
The LaGuardia Community Greenway, launched in 2022, has become a permanent space for college and community events. The 2025 LaGuardia Community Greenway series began on April 22 with an Earth Day celebration and the Hispanic Federation Career Expo on May 14. A celebration of Pride Month, Health and Wellness, will take place on June 4.
For more information about the street mural contest and the LaGuardia Community Greenway, contact Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Manny Romero, or Chief of Staff Nayelli Valencia Turrent.
• • • •
LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, located in Long Island City, Queens offers more than 50 associate degrees and academic certificates, and more than 65 continuing education programs to prepare New Yorkers for transfer to senior colleges and rewarding jobs and careers. An institution of the City University of New York (CUNY), the College reflects the legacy of our namesake, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the former NYC mayor beloved for his advocacy of the underserved. Since 1971, LaGuardia’s academic programs and support services have advanced the socioeconomic mobility of students from Queens, NYC and beyond.
####