Raw Arts gift to Lynn’s Cobbet School out of this world

LYNN – Climbing the stairs to get to the Cobbet Elementary School’s third floor can feel like walking all the way to space for a tired student on the first day of school.Thanks to Raw Arts and Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute, the journey will now have a cosmic reward at the top of the stairs as a brand-new space-themed mural is reaching completion this month.From planets in the solar system to three dimensional robots made from electrical boxes, members of LVTI’s painting and drawing shop and participants from the Raw Arts ?Good to Go’ painting group have transformed every part of the third-floor corridor into an elaborate space scene with surprises at every turn.”It is amazing. They are just so talented, they have utilized every nook and cranny of the walls,” said Cobbet Principal Brian Fay. “Every time I come up here I find something I hadn’t seen before.”The three-dimensional planets set against a black, star-clad background are the first elements of the art work that jump out, but closer inspection reveals a world of aliens, robots and other imaginative creatures exploring spaces’ great unknowns.Even the windows received some artistic treatment, keeping with the space theme, something that is welcomed, as Fay says sunlight is at a minimum in that hallway.”Unfortunately you don’t get very much light up here, so we wanted to bring the hallways to light for these kids,” he said.The project began during the school year with the students from LVTI drawing the base layers and painting some of the mural. Utilizing a partnership Fay had experienced working at other schools in Lynn, he was able to get in touch with Jason Cruz at Raw Arts and bring in a team of artists to put the finishing touches on the project.Cruz brought over a team of eight volunteers, who are high school and college age, to work on the project over four weeks this summer. He said doing projects like this is great for the community and Raw Arts, and would like to see the program expanded to include more projects.”We want to do more, but time is limited. A lot of what we try and do is paint on panels at the studio and then install them,” he said.Along with being fun and aesthetically pleasing, the mural goes along with the school’s science theme, and will feature vocabulary words and other educational additions throughout the year.Fay is hoping that the space mural will be the start of a long partnership between Raw Arts and the school, and he hopes to add other murals to other floors in the coming years.”Hopefully, this is a project that we can work on for a coupe of years with them. It is a great way to work with them,” said Fay. “I would love to see murals on the second and first floors, too. We have the space theme up here, I would like to do an Earth science theme on the second floor, and an ocean theme on the first floor.”I know there are a lot of schools in the city and a lot of projects they could be working on, so we will see what happens. I don’t want to say, ?The Cobbet should get all of this from Raw Arts, but I would love to continue the project to the other floors.”Cruz said any organization looking to use Raw Arts’ talents for a project should call the organization at 781-593-5513.