More Art is Happening at Moreland!
Professional muralist and GoodSpace Murals owner Greta Mclain visited with every single class at Moreland, along with all of the teachers, to start brainstorming what they want the mural to look like and what they want it to say.
What Murals Are
To start her work with the kiddos, Greta talked about what murals are. The students learned that murals are public and are for everyone. They can tell you where you are and who is important in a community, express identities, and inspire pride in a community.
How They Got Started
To get students familiar with the community mural process, a large sheet of paper was placed at every table. Groups of students worked together to create art that connected to each other. It was fun to see them working together as a group, negotiating their concepts and contributions, and talking through what they wanted to see on the mural. “We all come from different places and families, and we are all little bits of all of our identities,” Greta shared. “When we come together, we symbolize that.”
What the Moreland Mural Will Look Like
In classroom conversations with Greta, students and staff shared what they think about the following questions:
- Who are we at Moreland?
- What makes us unique?
- What do we want people to know about us and our school?
- What is our role in the neighborhood?
Those questions then lead to discussions on what elements they’d like to see in the mural. Students shared many ideas, including:
- Monarchs (of course!)
- Smiles and rainbows
- Music notes
- Thinking and learning
- Kindness and community
- Flowers
- Teachers and students! Especially kids doing activities we do at Moreland. Greta models her paintings on the people from the community, so we will likely see students painted into the mural!
What’s Next
Greta will take all our students' amazing ideas and sketch a few design options. The design will be finalized and approved in February. Students will begin painting the mural in the Moreland art room during the week of April 22, and we will host a community painting party on April 25 (during Moreland Made) for ALL to participate in the painting of the mural. The installation will be happening in late May.
We hope students enjoy participating in this meaningful and lasting legacy project for Moreland!
