The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
THE MAGIC OF THE MURAL
Students create school-wide art project in collaborative program
WINSTED — The American Mural Project recently completed a school-wide mural-making project at the Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School in Waterbury. AMP teaching artists led more than 600 students in the creation of a large-scale art project honoring family and community members whom the students admire for their work.
In May, AMP piloted collaborative programs at Rotella, where 180 students learned about AMP founder and artistic director, Ellen Griesedieck, and her idea for the American Mural Project, as well as the process of creating portraits of American workers. Secondgraders created their own “big idea,” and fourth-graders composed Blues songs related to subjects in the mural and their own lives. Both grades created self-portraits.
“AMP programs focus on using the students’ experience with art to help them recognize and represent the work going on in their community, and for them to value the work that enables a community to thrive,” said Michelle Begley, programs director at AMP. “The AMP programs go further by emphasizing the significance of their own work as students within their community.”
In early November, over the course of five days, more than 600 students in pre-K through grade 5 worked on a whole-school mural portraying a town with buildings and people doing jobs, as well as expressive self-portraits depicting the students’ favorite jobs. The multimedia project utilized pencil, crayon, marker, paint, and collage materials, and produced a five-panel mural depicting a firefighter, doctor, teacher, construction worker, and mail carrier, as well as the students’ selfportraits. Led by AMP teaching artist, Kathy Reddy, the project was funded by a grant from the Connecticut Community Foundation and will culminate with a trip to visit AMP in 2019 for the students to see the mural installation process.
“The magic of this project was pairing younger artists with students from upper grades,” commented Reddy. “I was inspired by their enthusiasm and ability to work together to create an amazing final project. The success of this program lies in the children’s connection and understanding of the American Mural Project itself: the beauty of people working together to create a community where all careers are valued.”
Renovations on the first of two mill buildings on AMP’s property on Whiting Street in Winsted are nearly finished and will be followed by the lengthy process of assembling and installing the nearly five-story, threedimensional mural. The new facility is targeted to open to the public late next year. AMP’s mill buildings will house the mural and an adjacent visitors center, which will become a destination for school and teacher programs, after-school programming, summer enrichment activities, experiential projects for visitors, an apprenticestyle internship program, and lectures and workshops, as well as the onsite portion of AMP’s curriculum.
Launched in 2002 by artist Ellen Griesedieck, the American Mural Project is creating the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world—a mural 120 feet long, 48 feet high, and up to ten feet deep. The mural is a tribute to American workers and highlights what has defined the country over the last century. It seeks to inspire, to educate, to invite collaboration, and to reveal to people of all ages the many contributions they can make to American culture. Nothing like it exists in the world.
More than 15,000 children and adults have helped create pieces of the mural, which will be housed in two former mill buildings on Whiting Street in Winsted. Scope Construction began renovations on the mural building in March 2017 and will finish in late 2018. The lengthy process of assembling and installing the mural will follow, with the public opening projected for 2019.
Support for the American Mural Project has been provided by the Newman’s Own Foundation, Institute of International Education/Ford Foundation, the Maximillian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, Arconic (formerly Alcoa), Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation, Northwest Community Bank, the Aetna Foundation, Stanley Black & Decker, the Draper Fund, the Diebold Foundation, and the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, among others.