Mural & Workshops with Innovative High
“It was nice to do something so big with your peers. ”
I’m excited to share my meaningful experience creating with students in a unique environment. I was invited to work with a new alternative GED program, Innovative High, that brought students together from different high schools in the Madison area. We built an art program that provided a creative outlet for the soon-to-be graduates. Teaming up with The Bubbler at Madison Public Library and the teachers and staff, I put together a year of art workshops and a mural focused on helping the students connect with themselves to better understand what they wanted out of graduation, and life.
With students in different places in their lives, it was a space for them to grow a relationship with their present and future selves, getting comfortable with what their path might hold. Amongst many different topics, we had conversations about the masks we sometimes wear in front of other people, and in career situations. Each workshop theme was paired with a project to express the meaning behind how they related to what we were discussing. At the beginning, a binder was given to each student to grow a portfolio of our time together, a take away as a reminder of what they built. While some projects were taken home by students, others were displayed in the hallway to share their experience.
“It was stress relieving. ”
After an entire school year with this team and these students, there was so much we shared together. We sometimes don’t fully realize how meaningful it is to give our time to a collective project, but working together there is a gift of communication through art. The ability to breathe and feel for a moment during a painting session or while working on a canvas can bring an unexpected healing. I heard from many students that “this is meditative, calming.” and that people who don’t normally interact were working together on the mural.
“I enjoyed painting because it helped you get your mind off things, like a meditation.”
The theme for the second semester was “Be,” - “I am existing and whatever you add to that is your choice in the moment.” This lead to the students decision of a tree in the colors of blue and orange for the design. “All they witness and see - they just keep growing.” Individual projects were simultaneously made on canvas, so they could take turns painting the mural and continue their personal bond with themselves. We started with a plain background of mural panels, writing what we wanted out of life on one side, and on the other, things we would like to leave behind. These words began to disappear under the paint.
“The mural represents growth, you like start school and we go through a bunch of listens and they can be challenging and like us in the beginning of the school year to us in the last day of the school year, I feel like we’ve grown a lot mentally.”
“I think the mural could mean being true to yourself, growing and blossoming into someone you want to be. Striving for change. I feel it could really mean something to the right person and I think that’s the goal of the mural in the first place, to speak truth to the youth. ”
There were tears, laughter, good days and difficult ones. A big moment for me was encouraging a student who began to cry, understanding the heaviness of this point in life when expectation is high and the pressure exists to decide what you want to be. Looking into their eyes with the deepest of intention I said, “You got this. You have nothing to fear.” They whispered back a “thank you” that has stayed with me since. Another was the end of the semester, while painting, we could hear yells of excitement in the hallway as a student found out they graduated. From beginning to end, I watched them collaborate, speak up, stay quiet and everything in-between, developing a growth that was undeniable. I want to thank everyone who helped bring these students together, and most of all, a thank you to them for showing up. Congratulations to the graduating class of Innovative High. You did it.
“I think there’s been a lot of emotion. I mean, everything to doing the mural. I started when you guys first got here and when I did my last test, when I passed the test, it was all done. It was just great to see that happen. ”
Thank you to the teachers: Andrew, Joe, Alison, Jenna, Tina, and all other staff who helped put this together, Jesse from the Bubbler, all of the students and one in particular who showed up every mural workshop to help paint. You know who you are. =)
“We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with you, and you have been a wonderful influence upon our students. Your ability to be present and authentic with them has been wonderful to observe and be part of. ”
