Fab-5′s Chris Jordan was just recently in the Tacoma News Tribune for some recent work bringing together over 40 students from Stewart Middle School, School of the Arts and the Science and Math Institute to create a vibrant, 100-foot-long mural.
>> Mural represent changes @ Stewart Middle School (Tacoma News Tribune)
The thump of oversized woofers reverberates amid the traffic noise as cars roll down Pacific Avenue past Stewart Middle School.
The historic school sits in a blue-collar neighborhood populated by taquerias, mom-and-pop businesses, pawnshops and pubs. Near the school, a visage of Bart Simpson in black-and-white-striped prison garb advertises Bad Boys Bail Bonds next to the Comfort Home storefront church – a metaphor of the neighborhood’s aspirations and incriminations.
As most students’ minds raced with thoughts of summer vacation during the past two weeks, a multicolored metamorphosis was nearing completion.
Wielding brushes and rollers covered in neon paint, 44 students from Stewart Middle School, School of the Arts and the Science and Math Institute, collaborated in the “Mega Mural Mini Term,” creating a vibrant, 100-foot-long mural spelling out “STEWART” in bold letters.
The project’s goal: beautifying a long section of chain-link fence that runs the length of the playground on Pacific Avenue.
“The mural represents a transformation that is happening internally at Stewart and is telling the rest of the world,” said Chris Jordan, a 20-year-old Tacoman and an adjunct art teacher hired in January.
“It’s about the new face of Pacific Avenue,” said Nate Herth, a visual-arts teacher at the school. “We’re saying hello to the neighborhood and saying, let’s have a conversation.” Herth, who has found hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia on the sidewalk outside the fence, hopes the beauty of the mural inspires change.
Jordan and Herth integrated students’ photos into the mural as graphic elements in the letters by projecting and tracing them on plywood.
The students then painted images of the school, students’ faces, a ripple caused by a finger dipping into a pool of water, an eagle flying overhead, the school’s panther mascot “chillin’” in a tree, and kids kicking a soccer balls or sitting in the sun, on 28 the panels.
While students are supplying the creativity for the project, Jordan and Hearth credit Jon Ketler, the director of Stewart Middle School, as well as SOTA and SAMI as the driving forces for change happening at the school.
This year, the school has dramatically increased the number of elective classes available to the students, creating a robotics lab and offering theater, choir, digital multimedia and audio recording along with a applied-mathematics curriculum that enlists a journeyman carpenter to teach students how to build sheds and homes.
For science teacher John Hoover, the mission is to recast the relationship between the school and the community.
He has shepherded the building of the school’s community garden, built by the students on a hillside near the playground. There, residents can rent a 4-by-12-foot raised bed for a $20 donation or whatever they can afford. (Anyone interested in renting a plot there can contact Hoover at jhoover@tacoma.k12.wa.us or 253-279-4069.)
Some of the produce grown at the school is harvested and given to local food banks.
Ketler beamed when talking about the mural and other student beautification efforts in the neighborhood, as well as their work with businesses.
Iola Brown of the Pacific Avenue Business District said that “she’s noticed Stewart kids getting more involved” while chuckling at the memory of students out cleaning and planting flowers in the pouring rain this spring along Pacific Avenue for the annual street fair and car show.
On Wednesday, the last day of school, Nate Herth and teams of students gingerly carried the plywood panels and arranged them in front of the playground fence.
Miranda Hadix, 13, and other students giggled and groaned while as they struggled with the panels and complained about how heavy they were.
Hadix, a shy aspiring artist who loves painting flowers, said she, like other students, worked more than 30 hours on the project. She said she was excited to see it mounted on the sterile playground fence.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Hadix said. “It’s really cool. It’s like saying I’ve been here and done something to make a difference.
