(Photo: Artwork by Mural Club participant, Shuvana)
By Abigail Hadfield
When Allston-Brighton students joined the Harvard Ed Portal’s Mural Club: Street Art & Community earlier this spring, they hoped to create a public mural to represent them and their community. Though students began the semester in person, they quickly transitioned to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and were still able to create their own personal works of art.
In past years of the Mural Club, Allston-Brighton students in grades 6–8 spent eight weeks working with two instructors: a Boston artist and educator and an intern from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Together, they would create a final public mural for their local community
This year’s students instead produced individual works of art with virtual guidance from their instructors, local artist Chanel Thervil and Harvard undergraduate Gabi Maduro Salvarrey. Although the club functioned differently than in the past, students still found it exciting to explore online and produce their own work.
Using art supplies shipped to them by the Ed Portal, students produced colorful works of art, incorporating portraits, cartoon characters, and nature scenes into their various final projects.
“My most memorable moment was when we made stencils and used them to paint. It was the first time I had done this!” said local 6th grader Sami.
Other students, like Joe, who’s in the 8th grade, said he enjoyed exploring abstract art.
Still others, such as Sammy, who’s also in the 6th grade said, “when we went on field trips, it was really great to see all of the beautiful murals, and how creative the artists were.”
Thervil said managing the remote transition was a group effort, with the support of Ed Portal staff to help brainstorm ideas and troubleshoot technical experiments.
“Since physically creating a mural was the initial focal point that I created the curriculum around, quarantine meant that I had to go back to the drawing
board,” said Thervil. “There was a lot of thinking deeply about student interests, access to materials at home, art making that could translate despite the digital divide, and realistic acceptance of what folks would have the mental and emotional capacity to focus on given the impact of COVID-19 and quarantine on everyones' health and wellbeing.”
Maduro Salvarrey said that the online transition was tough due to the collaborative nature of Mural Club, so together she and Thervil focused on adapting elements of murals to individual works of art and used student input and feedback to help adjust the program.
“This club was great for me and for the students, as it provided an artistic outlet as well as a community during this difficult transition,” she said. “Even though the initial goals of the club may not have come to fruition entirely, I believe our adjustments were exactly what the kids needed at this time.”
Thervil said that seeing how many people have been exploring baking and other hands-on activities during quarantine gave her the sense that people are craving ways to stay busy.
“For me art has always been my way of processing things that feel difficult to talk about,” said Thervil. “We also know that art has many beneficial effects on mood. It felt great to provide a small window each week that let folks press pause on their anxieties and dive into learning about various artists and techniques to fuel a creative outlet.”
Thervil added that it was important to keep students engaged when using virtual learning.
“A big element of my pedagogy as an educator hinges on the fact that having multiple entry points to a topic or skill is a concrete way to keep folks engaged,” she said. “From session to session there was a blend of icebreakers, videos, pictures, discussion, and draw-as-a-response activities used to support the skills we were building.”
Maduro Salvarrey said despite the changes to their learning model, she greatly enjoyed helping lead the program, as it was her first time co-moderating a club through the Ed Portal mentorship program.
“It was a very fulfilling experience overall and would recommend it to other mentors as an opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge from an expert from the community,” said Maduro Salvarrey. “I found it very valuable to work with Chanel this semester, because I learned her approach to structuring curricula while also learning about art and how to teach art.”
Creating murals in particular helps to develop values of compromise and collaboration among students, Thervil said.
“As an individual you have to accept discomfort, listen to collaborators, and come up with a design or solution that honors everyone's presence and still completes the goal,” said Thervil. “I would hope that runs parallel to experiences that students and their families can apply to any other facet of life.”
Maduro Salvarrey added that it was exciting to see the students’ progress through the course of the program.
“I saw a lot of students grow and become more confident in showing off their work and sharing how they genuinely felt, which was great to see,” said Maduro Salvarrey.