Got A Wall? Will Paint... A Mural

Hard to capture all of the amazing details in this work when it's in a hallway, but you get the idea!

How would you feel about painting a mural? 

Well, sure, where do you want it to go?

In that area where students enter every morning. It would be nice for the families to see.

The whole hallway? Uh... Let me get on that (right now)!

I've sketched, designed, painted, and collaborated on many artworks but nothing to the scale of what faced me in the school side entrance. My curriculum specialist has nothing if not vision and this was the place to show our school culture. So I embarked on a massive mural project with just a few weeks left of school and lots of excited helpers.

Just getting started

First I sat down with my students and we talked about our school values. What is important to us? What are we working toward? What are we good at? The students brainstormed visuals and buzzwords to get us started. Then students got a blank paper roughly to scale of the wall where we would be working. Each person came up with a design idea to bring all of our thoughts together. Then we shared them, picked and chose what worked best from each design, and reassembled them into our final draft.

Taking shape!

I decided to sketch the design on the wall to manage the scale of the objects because we had such a long space and to unify the overall appearance. Then it was time to block in the major colors (blue, brown, and green for the sky, grass, and tree). After that the real fun came in adding details. A warm color pattern livens up the sun. Flowers dot the grass. Organic swirls playfully mimic tree bark a'la Klimt. Our school mascot, a charming little blue owl, is tucked up in the tree also.

Almost there

The best part was that we finished the mural just as school was finishing so we could celebrate all of our accomplishments that year and it welcomed students back the next.

Art in Action: Exploring Social Justice With Students

Art and creative concepts are pervasive in our everyday culture. Art also offers an accessible lens for people to experience issues of social justice both locally and globally. Even better for our students, art allows students to engage with social justice issues in a meaningful and age-appropriate way.

An issue near and dear to the hearts of our school community was the plight of animal welfare both on our school campus and in the city where we lived. Stray cats could be found in every neighborhood and around every dumpster. Further afield, stray dogs and their puppies could sometimes escape notice but were very often confronted by human activities. Adding to the issue was the fact that the local government (not in America) did not have any laws or policies accounting for animal welfare or control. What can people who love animals but don't have widespread governmental support do to help? Investigate, reflect, connect, and then act.

Students knew that animal welfare was a problem both on our campus and in the community because they could see it with their own eyes. This made them think about the harsh reality of these animals' lives, how animals were both helped and hurt by humans, and who was already working on these issues. So we connected with local animal rescue groups and asked what we could do to help. They gave us the following suggestions:

• TNR (trap, neuter, release) the cats already living on our school campus so they wouldn't continue to breed, stayed healthier, and established a stable territory.
• Make a commitment to your own pets so that they don't get lost or abandoned.
• Donate time and money to animal rescue groups so they could continue their invaluable work.

With our plan of action, we began creating artworks inspired by animals to draw attention to the issue of animal welfare in our community. We decided to sell these artworks at the school's annual Friendship Festival to raise money for our TNR campaign and to make a donation to the rescue groups already in operation. Didn't they do a spectacular job?!

I am proud to say that through our school group's efforts from the sale of artwork, hosting a craft booth at Friendship Festival, and organizing other student events we were able to raise almost $10,000. I can't wait to see what these kids are capable of as they grow and continue to fight for change.

Art Teacher Inspiration: Bulletin Boards

Hanging artwork is both a joy and a chore for art teachers. You are proud of your students' work and want to share their successes with the school community. At the same time, it means wrestling with massive bulletin boards that look beautiful for the first 10 minutes after you cover them in preparation for displaying work. Then school life happens and you spend the rest of the year waging war with your stapler on curling or torn corners and faded spots where the artwork has been hanging. Some people cleverly use fabric as a more durable option - until the fire marshal says no - and then you wrack your brain because no art teacher is ever defeated in the quest for a creative solution.

Enter... PAINTED BULLETIN BOARDS!

Wait, you can paint on those? Yup! And oh, they will be glorious. Here are two more that I loved from my painting campaign.

Have any big gallons of tempera that are about to go off? This is your project. The cork will absorb a fair bit of paint but if you work quickly you can still get decent coverage. To create a visually interesting background that doesn't distract from students' work I would use 2-3 colors that blended nicely (art vocabulary = analogous) and applied it in an abstract, swirling pattern. This project was like an adult coloring book: so relaxing yet you are accomplishing so much. 

Want to run this idea by your principal and hope they say yes? Just hit them with these (totally legitimate, inspired) reasons:

• Painting bulletin boards is cost effective in the long run because it uses fewer materials and doesn't need to be replaced for several years. You might end up re-touching spots but not the whole board.
• The boards look good all year round. Whether it's the beginning of the year, end of the year, or time between projects, these boards are beautiful ALL THE TIME. At one of my schools, the administrators made me keep the art show up through the summer. No one wants to look at last year's art in August and what about the poor kids who move or want to enjoy their art?!
• Reduces waste by allowing you to use old paint or donations from the school community. This doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor!
• Involves the community. I was lucky to have a helpful maintenance crew who took the boards down for me to work on them and re-hung them when I was finished (24 boards in total, bless their hearts). While I was working I kept my door open and people popped in to watch and admire. The results are stunning so show off your process to build interest in your program!