Artist brings 10,000 Flowers Project to Perry
Students, staff help paint the mural at Perry Elementary School
It’s not spring yet, but flowers are blooming at Perry Elementary School.
These flowers didn’t come from seeds.
They came from the mind of Tim Gibson, an artist who travels the country in a pink short bus covered in floral imagery.
Gibson’s goal is to paint a garden across the country, an interconnected mural of unique flower designs, inspired by the work of artist and Berks native Keith Haring.
His initiative, the 10,000 Flowers Project, has taken Gibson across 300 towns in 11 states, where he paints flowers on everything from hospitals and schools to small businesses and outdoor fences.
But Gibson doesn’t paint alone. Each step of his project is a collaboration involving local volunteers, who offer their walls and their painting skills, filling in the flowers he paints with colors of their choice.
Now, his bus — named Petunia — is parked outside Perry Elementary, and flowers are blooming on the walls of the school’s three-story stairwell, thanks to Gibson’s current crop of volunteers: K-5 elementary students.
Hamburg School District’s portion of the project was organized by Laura O’ Keefe, art teacher at Perry Elementary.
O’Keefe said the project offers students and staff some much needed positivity after several difficult years.
“With COVID, it seemed we didn’t have any joy in our school anymore,” O’Keefe said. “(The project) is an awesome way to bring everyone together.”
O’Keefe said her students were thrilled when Gibson rolled up in his pink bus, and have been having the time of their lives ever since.
“When they’re painting, I hear them say things like ‘this is the best day of my life,’ ‘I don’t want to leave,’ … just pure joy,” O’Keefe said.
She said it isn’t just the kids who are having fun.
“Everyone: the teachers, the custodians, are all painting,” O’Keefe said. “There are lots of smiles.”
O’Keefe said her goal with the project is also to teach kids the value of work, by having them actively participate in every step of the artistic process.
“I’m hoping this will instill some kind of work ethic,” O’Keefe said. “Things take time. You have to put the work in to make them look great.”
The project at Perry Elementary started about three weeks ago, and will continue until later in March, teachers said.
“Laughing, having fun and being there for each other. Working together to create something special that will last for generations. That’s what the 10,000 flowers project is all about,” Gibson said in a video on the project’s website.