Murals Teach Art, History

For a month, children at Hartland South Elementary School in Hartland, Wis., watched as the walls of the school library transformed into the stuff of dreams. As PTO member Chris Vincent painted a forest that led to a pond and rolling hills, with clouds overhead and a castle in the distance, they’d ask her, “Are you a real artist?” and many confided their own dreams of a creative future. “Everybody got to see it growing and changing,” says Vincent, and when the three-walled mural was finished, “It was like walking into a storybook.”

At Westtown-Thornbury School in West Chester, Pa., the children themselves served as artists for a mosaic made from art room leftovers and scrounged ceramics. Now the young artists frequently stop by the mural in the cafeteria and add items to its treasure chest, always treating it with great respect. “The kids won’t pick things off,” says art teacher Karol Appel. “No one has damaged it. They’re very kind to it because they’ve taken ownership of the project.”

Many schools have discovered that murals not only beautify buildings but also inspire community pride among students. Sometimes that pride comes from the process of creating a mural. It can also be tied to the mural’s subject, which for many schools offers a chance to celebrate local history. PADREES in Action, a parent group at Luther Burbank Middle School in Los Angeles, hired two muralists to paint the wall and two stairwells on its Figueroa Street facade; the artwork depicts diverse populations from the Aztecs to activist Cesar Chavez. Four local artists created the mural installed on the front of the new gym at Seeley Lake Elementary School in Seeley Lake, Mont., using as their theme “The Natural Beauty of Our Home, Seeley Swan Valley.”

Lyme Consolidated School in Lyme, Conn., decided to focus on the community past and present. One of the first activities was a scavenger hunt of local historic places to get students thinking about what they could draw. Then speakers from the museum talked to the children about such town history as the Lyme Artists Colony, which attracted many of the most important American artists of the early 1900s. Other locals shared stories about when the schoolhouse consisted of only one room and about the history of quarries and shad fishing.

About 180 students in grades K-5 submitted their drawings, which included animals as well as historic buildings and homes. With the help of the art teacher, the PTO cultural committee chose the best representations of the town, including depictions of the school, kids playing soccer, and the annual fair.

The artist then put those drawings onto transparencies and projected them onto panels. Parents and other community members traced the lines of the drawings onto panels. Then the children painted it, using 10,000 Q-tips, in the Pointillism style of French impressionist Georges Seurat.

The inspiration for some murals is more universal. Students at Liberty Township Junior High School in Liberty Township, Ohio, voted to memorialize the tragic events of September 11 on a wall inside the school’s social studies wing with a painting of twin spotlights set against the nighttime New York City skyline.

At Roosevelt Elementary School in Plover, Wis., a connection of ideas led to the design of the a clay mural. “We brainstormed with students about how you achieve character, and the conclusion came to be that you have to grow and develop character as you grow,” says art teacher Lauren Isberner. “We talked about what grows—plants and trees and seeds—and where you find them—in a garden—so the theme came to be a character-building garden.”

Each student evaluated his own strengths and drew something representative. One chose a flower, explaining, “I grow in my knowledge just like a flower grows.” Another chose a fountain because “when something bad happens, I keep going on and on like a fountain.”

Creative Funding

The price tags of murals are as varied as their subjects. The one at Westtown-Thornbury didn’t cost anything. Inspired by “things that blew up in the kiln, because there’s never a mistake in the art room,” Appel offered a lesson in recycled art. Students brought in chipped mugs and other ceramics, shells, costume jewelry, glass marbles, and mock gold chains. These were smashed up to create an undersea-themed mosaic that features a treasure chest, sea shells, and fish. Students stepped into clay to create the images, and close inspection reveals the brand names of their sneakers.

At Hartland South, the PTO spent $2,200 on its mural. At Lyme, the PTO contributed $4,000 for a five-day artist residency that culminated in community art. “We don’t normally spend one chunk of money on one project, but because everyone could participate, we felt it was a good choice,” says Kelley Cahill, a member of the PTO cultural committee.

Sometimes fundraisers cover the costs. An early mural effort at Hope Valley Elementary School in Hope Valley, R.I.—300 tiles arranged to look like an American flag—was funded in part by the donation of $5 from each participating child, with the PTO chipping in the rest. At Roosevelt Elementary, the $600 cost of the mural was paid for with proceeds from a T-shirt sale sponsored by one teacher.

At Liberty Township Junior High, the student council votes on mural ideas, then raises funds to pay for them. “You have to be very careful in getting the message out that the mural is done through donations and student-driven fundraisers, that it’s not coming out of community taxes,” says Principal Ron Spurlock. “That’s the public relations part of murals.”

Liberty Township parent and mural artist Kim Kanzlemar, who has donated much time to brighten the school’s walls, urges others to tap into their own talent before engaging outside artists. “You have a vast wealth of talent within your district,” she says. “Check with parents before hiring someone.”

Sometimes the mural itself can be a fundraiser. Millers Creek Primary School in Millers Creek, N.C., drew off square blocks of its mural on a board, “selling” these sections to sponsors whose names were posted on a donor board in a hallway. The school also sold several hundred signed prints of the mural, with an option for framing through a local business, which shared profits. The result was that the mural paid for itself, though Principal Al Olson believes that more effort could have turned the summertime event into a moneymaker. “If we had really pushed it hard and done it during the school year, we would have made money,” he says.

Murals are often funded by grants, which help determine the subject matter. With an $1,194 matching grant from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts to work on a project that was scholastic and artistic, Hope Valley chose to focus on its local watershed, the natural water that runs through town, says Elizabeth Pare, a member of the PTO cultural arts committee.

The three-sectioned project features two painted boards, one that shows the river’s banks and bottom and another that focuses on the effects of weather and pollution. Both are supplemented by more than 250 removable, laminated cutouts of plants, animals, clouds, rain, and lightning that can be attached with Velcro. The grant paid for half of the artist’s fees, which included supplies; the PTO paid for the rest.

Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School in Hyattsville, Md., received a $1,650 matching grant from the state arts council. The goal: to incorporate the social studies curriculum with the artistic process and self-examination through student-generated historical maps of the area. The first level showed the woods and streams that existed when Hyattsville was a rural agricultural area. That was overlaid with roads and developments and then historic landmarks and current buildings.

The grants from state arts organizations often hook up schools with local artists. Otherwise, a search is necessary, though sometimes it’s just a matter of tapping local talent. Hope Valley, for example, worked with an artist a PTO member knew from school and church. But Millers Creek used the Internet to find an artist within a 100-mile radius. “I simply went under ‘murals’ and ‘art’ for a broad-based search, then narrowed it down to a geographic area,” says Olson.

A Few Pointers

Murals that take up an entire wall are often about eight feet tall, though width can vary widely. Lyme’s mural covers three walls and ranges in width from four to eight feet. In contrast, Hartland South’s library mural spans 34 feet across one of the walls and creates the 3-D effect of walking into a book.

The location of a mural depends on what’s available. Westtown-Thornbury’s decision was easy; its dining room is a gallery space full of artwork. Lyme had some empty wall space at the school’s entranceway following renovations. Langley Park-McCormick chose the media center, the site of frequent meetings, so that the children could see the mural almost daily.

How long does it take to complete a mural? Seeley Lake finished one in two weeks. But at Westtown-Thornbury, the process is nearing completion only after two years—sort of. Because kids continue to add items, says Appel, the art is “a work in progress that will never be finished.”

Plenty of assistance is vital. Seeley Lake used many volunteers, not only parents but also community members. “Their job was to mill about smartly and affirm what children were doing,” says Jeanne Moon, a former PTA member and one of the artists leading the project. Volunteers at Hope Valley cut out and laminated the silhouettes. Helpers at Westtown-Thornbury spent 12 hours grouting the clay mosaic—pressing grout between the broken pieces of ceramic—in a job considered too dangerous for the children.

Most agree that children should be involved, either by contributing ideas or by actually participating in the mural’s creation. “Be sure to let students help decide what goes on it, because they’re really creative,” says Isberner. “If you put two to three adults in charge, they would have wonderful ideas, but the kids wouldn’t have ownership.” When children do take part in the actual artistic work, it’s important to assign them roles based on their abilities, says Beth Drainville, the artist for the Hope Valley project. In that project, kindergartners painted clouds or lightning streaks, while fourth-graders painted birds.

The effects of this involvement can be profound. “My daughter was one of the students who participated in the project [at Seeley Lake],” says Moon. “She’s in college now but still has a sense of pride in the part she played. It’s so visible and has generated a great deal of good will in the community.”

That goodwill can be reinforced with a public unveiling. At Luther Burbank, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, one of the mural subjects, attended the ceremony. At Langley Park-McCormick, the unveiling was held on Langley Park Day, a community celebration.

Planning Time

Concerns about murals range from paint toxicity to building and fire codes in the early stages to vandalism of the finished product. Luther Burbank painted its outdoor mural with a special coating to make graffiti washable, while Millers Creek installed lights for nighttime visibility.

Another concern is time. “Plan a schedule out ahead of time of when to fit [the mural work] in,” says Drainville. “Teachers don’t like to be surprised, for they have a short time to accomplish what they need to do.” And she cautions that everything takes longer than expected. For example, mounting Hope Valley’s project on a concrete wall, expected to take 30 minutes, took the father who volunteered four hours.

And plan carefully. “You need to know in advance what the final product will be and the expectation for display,” says Anne Fishman, formerly the reading specialist at Langley-Park Elementary School in Hyattsville, Md. She recalls one project she attempted, a large quilt, that ran into unexpected expenses (the need for looms) and that ultimately was not able to be installed, greatly disappointing those involved.

But the popularity of murals continues to grow. And at many schools, one mural begets another. Liberty Township has five so far. And at Millers Creek, the principal thinks those columns at the front of the school might look quite nice painted as trees.