Organization: Bayview School
Location: Burlington, WA
Project: Trash Mural
After volunteer teaching K-8 art classes at Bayview School for 6 years, I was wrapped up the program with a final mural project. The mural was designed to bring to life a beautiful image of the Bellingham, WA Bay watershed. This 6’x12′ mural was created with 641 individual squares made from trash people used at school collected in their backpacks over a week. The act of being responsible for their trash was eye opening for the participants.
Program Outcomes:
- Funding for mural from Waste Managment
- School wide student led garbage and waste interest, and cultural changes including reusable lunch boxes and bulk food purchases in lieu of grab and go throw away packaging.
- My commitment to art netted district wide funding for supplemental art program The Art Wagon and 1000’s of students that exists to this day.
- Local News Coverage article below:
Skagit Herald Article excerpts:
BAY VIEW — When their teachers asked them to bring certain items to class, some of the students at Bay View Elementary School might have thought it was an odd request.
“Our teachers told us to bring in a bunch of garbage,” said school co-president Bowen King, 13. Bay View students brought in the trash, which was stored up for a schoolwide art project.
“The recycling component’s the cool part,” said Christine Royers, a volunteer art teacher in the school. “It’s a lot of different plastics from different sources.”
With the scraps and trash they had collected, each student got to make their own piece of art, which Royers then collected to form a much bigger piece, a mural that now hangs in the hall next to the school’s library.
Everyone — students, teachers, staff, janitors and even the principal — contributed and made a square for the mural, 641 in all. “It’s been cool to see the school join together,” Bowen said. “Here we have this project that we all worked on, and it helps make the world better.”
While they were working on their squares, the students learned about garbage and its effect on the community and how to recycle. Teachers showed students what a seemingly trivial plastic beverage container can have on wildlife. “It was a real eye-opener for a lot of us,” Bowen said. Fourth-grader Dillon Ballenger, who made an eagle on his square, said he learned that what is normally seen as garbage, sometimes isn’t.