Northside students design downtown mural

■ Reveal scheduled for April 19.

Art Feeds is revealing a community mural designed by children at Northside Elementary School in downtown Siloam Springs on Thursday, April 19.

The 15-feet-tall and 20-feet-wide mural will be located on the side of the Arvest Bank located at 108 E. University St., according to a press release from Art Feeds. A student art parade will begin at 9:15 a.m. followed by the mural reveal at 9:30 a.m.

The reveal will celebrate the community collaboration, student creativity and hard work that made the mural possible. With the dedicated time and energy of Northside Elementary teachers Nancy Efurd and Eumia Fullerton, every student in the school participated in the creation process by choosing a theme, colors and design for the mural.

Northside Elementary School students voted on the theme “Health and Safety” and created illustrations revolving around that theme. The mural is completely student designed and driven.

Once the students’ ideas were created in the classroom, Art Feeds staff worked to scan their images. Their drawings were then put into Adobe Illustrator and made into a graphic art work, with more than 40 hours of work by Art Feeds graphic designer Abby Spillane.

Art Feeds provides therapeutic art and creative education curriculum and training to schools and children’s organizations nationwide. Since 2009, the organization has impacted 38,500 children, the press release states.

The organization has worked with children to create 35 murals and the mural in Siloam Springs is the largest to date, it states.