Our 2022 Spring Professional Artist Series season includes a special series where children work with and learn from a professional muralist to transform a wall at their site into a mural. This type of program is distinguished from a general Professional Artist Series and provides an opportunity for highly collaborative work between children that produces a product which is displayed and viewed by peers and the public for an extended period of time.
Bringing Courage Into Art
The current series is being led by Free Arts teaching artist Isaac Caruso at A New Leaf East Valley After School Program. Over six weeks, the children learned about mural creation from concept, theme development, to putting paint on the wall surrounding their playground. Children were prompted to think about important themes including “courage” and then freely sketch what those themes meant to them.
After sketching was complete, teaching artist Isaac compiled images from all of the children’s sketchbooks and transferred them into a final mural design. Through a paint-by-numbers system, each child helped paint sections of the wall. Free Arts volunteer mentors Mary Greer and Andrea Privett supported this project and built connections with children throughout the process.
The final masterpiece will be revealed and celebrated by the end of March 2022 at A New Leaf!
