By Students and For Students
The Walk In Art Center and the students of Pottsville Area School District worked together to paint a brand new mural. It now hangs on the wall of the Ned Hampford Natatorium. Dr. Jeffrey Zwiebel, superintendent said, “It involved as many students as we could from all three buildings and I’m hoping it gives the students a sense of pride and ownership in our school district.”
Murals are common at Pottsville Area School District.
The walls of the high school are covered in them—there are murals on every floor of the building, and each one was painted by members of the graduating class and designed to represent their four years. There’s also the mural painted onto the wall of Castle Hill, which you can see as you walk up from the parking lot or your bus drives up to the cafeteria doors.
John S. Clarke has their own as well, outside of their cafeteria on the bottom floor of the building. It is dedicated to the school’s founder and namesake, John S. Clarke.
Now, the newest mural on the walls of DHHL Lengel is a mural for all of the district. It’s by students and for students.
Near the end of last school year, students across the district worked together within their own buildings to paint a mural designed by high school students and the Artist in Residence, Danielle Beury. The mural was a project between Pottsville Area School District and The Walk In Art Center in Schuylkill Haven. “The people at the Walk In Art Center were very easy to work with,” Mrs. Sara Arnold, art teacher at the high school, said. “The mural project was a great opportunity for our students and the community.”
After the mural was designed by Ms. Beury and the high school students, it was printed onto large sheets of paper and colored/painted by students at all the buildings.
For example, at the high school students would walk into the cafeteria and see students on the stage near the end of the room, surrounded by painting supplies and desks where the paper lay. Students were allowed to work on the mural during the lunch periods or whenever they had free time, like study halls. “My favorite thing was honestly working with the kids,” Beury said, “They were helpful, and just watching them have such a good time doing it melted my heart.The teamwork, and coordination, all of it.
After the mural was done, all three pieces- each one done by a different school- were put together to create one large, coherent mural. On September 5, people gathered to attend the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the mural, which now hangs on the walk outside the Ned Hampford Natatorium. District officials attended along with the art teachers from the district. Dr. Jeffrey Zwiebel, superintendent, said about the mural, “It involved as many students as we could from all three buildings and I’m hoping it gives the students a sense of pride and ownership in our school district.”
Along with the mural at the middle school, the PAHS Art Department will be working with the Walk In Center for another project in the future.