When students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) go back to school in the fall they will see trees that magically represent all four seasons, rainbows, the Earth, an astronaut and bubbles full of hopes and dreams. At the end of the 2017- 18 school year, the Art 1 students completed a mural featuring these images of positivity and inclusion. The mural wraps around the bottom of one of the school’s central stairwells. In response to high stress levels among the ERHS student body, the Parent Teacher Student Association, students, teachers and counselors decided to improve the school environment by adding art. Students cooperated in brainstorming and planning, resulting in a mural portraying themes of calmness, diversity and natural beauty.
Additional projects are planned for the school, including outdoor plantings, murals and mosaics on currently blank walls. Murals are planned for all three floors on the stairwells on both sides of the school. These stairwells are large community spaces where crowds can gather. Art teacher Christine Wilkin presented her Art 1 students with the idea of adding art to the school environment to raise student morale. With that in mind, the students created inspirational images. Wilkin said, “The kids generally made images that were about diversity, nature, things that make you happy. We went with the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’”
In her end-of-year surveys, Wilkin received positive feedback about the mural. Students were happy to do something meaningful in class that would contribute to the school. Art 1 students themselves did all the painting to complete the mural. Wilkin created timesheets and specific jobs for students so that their collaboration on the mural would be organized and productive. Different tasks included technical jobs like cleaning brushes, laying down drop cloths, painting the background or using projectors to trace individual artist’s designs onto the wall. Individual ideas were consolidated. Wilkin reported, “Everyone wants to have a tree. A lot of people think we need a rainbow. We voted on it during class. There were changes made while discussing it and even while painting it.”
The mural evolved and changed so that student ideas could be incorporated as the project developed. For example, a tree in the mural was initially a fall tree, then they started adding flowers, so the tree eventually represented all four seasons, including snowflakes. More ideas were needed to fill the length of the wall, some unsuccessful ideas were painted over and an astronaut was added.
Wilkin said, “A committee sketched everything together. Everyone was invited, it was after school, it was voluntary, so the small group made the plan and everyone voted on it.” The process was fun and gave the students a feeling of ownership, she added. Student Lillian Gunn had the idea of a book bag with bubbles coming out of it, containing different ideas represented at ERHS, including a microscope, football, math symbols, drama masks, paint brush, violin with notes of music and Spiderman (a high school student who is gifted in both chemistry and photography).
The student artists felt it was very important to include diversity in the mural. They wanted to have an even number of boys and girls in the mural, including portraits of specific students from the class. A gender-neutral person was also intentionally included. Wilkin pointed out that ERHS students “are more open to things that we older people struggle to understand.”
Wilkin’s Art 1 students will do these types of murals for their end-of-year projects, along with another project planned and executed simultaneously to make the best use of their time. Art teacher Monique Connealy also hopes to start a club to continue painting murals. Wilkin was very satisfied with the mural by the end of the year, and has great hopes for her students. “These kids at Eleanor Roosevelt give me so much hope. I cannot wait till they are in charge. They are woke.”