LYNN– The school committee tabled a proposal from Beyond Walls to install murals in Breed Middle School and Classical High School at its last meeting.
Al Wilson, executive director of Beyond Walls, explained that the nonprofit organization has funds to install two murals by professional artists this August on two Lynn buildings and it has recently come of interest to educators that the buildings be schools.
He said the organization has a Classroom to the Streets program that engages students with the organizations’ work through hands-on activities, mural tours, artist interviews, and other lesson plans which students would benefit from if the murals were installed at the schools.
He added the program “leverages the power of public art to deeply engage youth in learning. It uses Beyond Walls’ public art as a platform for youth to explore issues of interpersonal, social, academic and historical understanding.”
He said a working group of educators from Lynn Public Schools has been working with Beyond Walls since January to come up with lesson plans that would be implemented the following Fall after the art was installed in the summer.
Committee members expressed concerns about the murals being placed in the schools without student feedback before tabling the conversation.
“I would like to see more student involvement in the process, even if it was them drawing the picture on a small scale and then your artists come back next year and paint it on the building,” Committee Member Lorraine M. Gately said
“We have so many gifted students,” Gately said. She added, for example, there was recently a clean up day where students’ posters were displayed on bulletin boards. “It brings them so much pride, and as a school committee member, that’s what I want to see for our students.”
Committee Member Lenny Peña agreed that students should be involved in deciding what would be painted on the murals, adding that perhaps the committee could return to the idea after putting out a survey asking students what they would like to see on the murals.
“We need to be culturally competent and inclusive,” he said. “What are the needs? What students are the majority? What’s the focus?”
School Committee Member Sean Reid said ensuring the students are there for the process is “the biggest concern for us all,” and asked if student artists would be considered as potential creators of the murals.
Wilson said it is not the Beyond Walls brand to have artists be “dictated” by outside forces and it can be difficult to make meaningful art that requires community input. He added that the organization is unable to work with youth artists because it requires artists to be OSHA certified, a certification that people must be at least 18-years-old to obtain.
He added in light of the committee tabling the discussion, that he is “excited to discuss the opportunity further with the committee and to hopefully bring artwork to Lynn schools sometime after our installations in other cities are completed this summer.”
“In the meantime, in Lynn, we will continue to work with educators on lesson plans,” he said.
