Leaf Elhai

Paint + Walls: A Recipe for Welcome in a New Home

Posted by Leaf Elhai, Jun 08, 2016 0 comments


Leaf Elhai

When Fenway High School moved to a new building in August 2015, I was struck by one thing: vast canvases of blank, white walls.

 Our old building, which we shared with another high school, was a cozy warren of classrooms all branching off of a single, low-ceilinged hallway. That hallway was alive with color: with the help of visiting artists, students over the years had painted murals representing their heroes, their neighborhood, and their activism. Between classes, 350 students packed the brightly painted halls, which matched the vibrancy of their shouts and laughter. When we moved our school across the city, our piles of books and equipment came with us, but those walls couldn’t budge.

The new building is beautiful, with high ceilings, restored wooden molding, and long, white walls. But when I first set foot in our school’s new home, I knew those walls needed a touch of color. The solution? New murals, which would not only add life to the building, but also pay homage to our school’s past.

This was the first year of an art club at Fenway High School (at least in recent memory), but I knew that our teen artists would be up to the task of designing and painting murals for our new space. Students immediately latched onto the idea of creating a mural representing our new neighborhood, in honor of the move we had just undertaken.

Students took birds-eye photos from our third-floor windows and sketched the landmarks they saw every day on their commute to school. Then one student had an idea—what if the mural could represent the new neighborhood while also recognizing our history as a school nestled in Boston’s downtown Fenway neighborhood? One student traced the Boston city skyline from our school’s logo into the scene, and the mural design was complete. Each student had something to add to the design: an eye for color, a knack for perspective drawing, or an idea for brushstrokes.

 With guidance from local mural artist Sophy Tuttle and hours of work after school, the black and white sketch became a swath of color on the wall next to our main office. Now, visitors to our school are met with a mural that showcases our students’ creativity and our school’s dedication to the neighborhood we now call home.

In April, as part of Fenway’s annual Project Week, another group of students took on the challenge of creating a second mural. This time, we had forty feet of wall space in our athletic hall to fill, 14 painters, and only one week to complete the job. Once again, students rose to the challenge. They took the design into their own hands and created a mural representing the dedication and strength of all athletes who work as a team to achieve their goals.

Thanks to the Vans Custom Culture grant, Fenway High School students have revived the tradition of public murals at our new school building. These murals have empowered students to shape the space around them, to express themselves creatively, and to add beauty to their home away from home. As I was helping to clean up after the second mural was complete, I overheard a student conversation that confirmed the success of our project. “Hey!” the student said to his friend, “I want to help paint the next mural!” I am confident that there will be many more.

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