Each teacher at the South Shore Charter Public School teaches their content area (middle school Math in my case) and also teaches a project. The projects are service learning-based, meaning the students learn skills necessary to fulfill a need of the local or greater community. This year, my art project was asked if we would like to create a mural for the back wall of the school library with the theme "Celebrating Diversity". My project students were enthused, and we embarked on a series of design discussions, division into teams, design sessions followed by group critique to refine their ideas. The space measures 6 x 6 feet. We decided to create the mural on canvas rather than the wall itself in case the library was ever reconfigured. Our discussions resulted in a decision to show religious, racial, cultural, and global diversity. The students arranged themselves into teams, and began working. They chose a globe as the unifying element in the center of the mural. What did they learn?
Giving and receiving constructive criticism, scaling up, color mixing, perspective, vibrating color within a value range, teamwork, among other things.
This is the finished product. The students are thrilled with their effort, as they should be. The mural was assigned a new home behind the front desk in the entryway of the school where it is seen every day as the students enter. See our process photos below.
Thanks for looking. You know I appreciate your comments
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Adding hand prints to racial diversity quadrant
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painting flesh tones
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global and gender diversity
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scaling up the racial diversity quadrant
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measuring where the central globe will fit
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