This is the second in a series of Legacy Posts about projects that happened early on in my art classroom. Recently I was able to tap into some archived photos that I thought had long ago disappeared. I’ve decided to write some blog posts incorporating these photos to share the memories and/or inspire others to try these projects. Some are very dear to me because I took risks with my students and the end result was big learning for all of us, especially me. Also, in my nineteenth year of teaching now, I realize that ideas, projects, and programs come and go, and sometimes come back again. The first post in the series can be found here.

During the 2008/9 school year, my 7th and 8th grade art classes met three times in a 3-day cycle and were offered as true separate focus electives. One of the electives was Art Through Art Movements, where the projects were developed based on periods in art history. One such project were murals we painted throughout the school following Robert Indiana‘s block letters and hard edges from the Pop Art movement.

Eighth grade students worked in cooperative learning groups to brainstorm possible inspirational words and then chose one to develop into a design for a wall. The words they chose were Create, Pride, Faith, Dream, Strive, Peace, Brave, Learn, Give, and Inspire. Working groups then had to design color combinations to empower the words further.

The murals were painted in acrylic in quiet hallways in the eighth grade wing and were finished with a coat of clear gloss medium to preserve them for eternity.

Here are the photos of the murals and of the students painting the murals: