Welcome! We're celebrating Mosaic Murals in the Bronx at 3441 Steenwick Ave. They are designed and Fabricated by students and have transformed the school. We'll be talking about murals by students that dramatically change schools.

These are two 11' columns that are part of the Three Pillars of PS/IS 189. The third pillar is inside, a 9'x18'mosaic mural with a bench with Rosa Parks, but more of that later.

I am thrilled by the effect of murals in the schools. This mural was funded by the Sites for Students Program of the New York City Department of Education and the New York City School Construction Authority. This is large scale but I did 2 smaller mosaics for Studio in a School funded by Met life that also transformed the schools. In this blog we'll look at ways to make murals, painted, collaged and mosaic, that are designed and fabricated by students.

On to the celebration! After the students made drawings we enlarged them. Here is President Obama in Washington as part of the Academic Excellence column. The top is 5 community workers that we'll look at next time when discussing group work.

The artist students chose the colors and patterns but we worked together to make even lines to clearly show their designs. The 2nd pillar is Cultural Diversity show by the slave trade routes of Africa and self portraits by 2nd and 6th graders. After the design phase when we made painted murals to introduce group work we set up a fabrication studio in the school. The students learned how to make permanent art in the 4 months that followed.

I look forward to sharing ways to make murals in schools even if they do not have art rooms or experience. I look forward to hearing about your murals and would be glad to answer questions!

To the walls!