The Mile high Mural was dedicated on May 15th, 2008 with a grand celebration that included the Mile High Jazz Band, Mile High Choir, and three Mile High students calling themselves " the Little Squeakers."
The mural was administered by Prescott Alternative Transportation and funded by the federal Safe Routes to School Program. A program that fights childhood obesity and other inactivity-related health issues, environmental pollution, and traffic congestion by encouraging kids to walk and ride bikes to school.
School Principle Joe Howard played the master of ceremonies introducing City Council member Bob Luzius who stated " I support Bicycling activities, public art, and more public art!" Unified School District Superintendant Kevin Kapp, longtime art teacher Amanda Chartier and district art class coordinator Cheryl Moran all spoke about the benefits of the project.
The project began in February 2008 with a Mural Mice play that introduced the children to the mural process. Students filled out surveys, participated in group think tanks, critiqued, and elected the mural. With a little help from Mural Mice R.E. Wall, Margaret Dewar, and Katie Nelson the mural displays Mile High dedication to finding alternative transportation to get to and from school.
How we did it.
The Mile High Mural began with an introduction
to the project on February 15th, 2008 in the Hendrix Auditorium at Mile High Middle School. The play
written and directed by Margaret Dewar was called,
"If You Give A Mouse A
Cookie..."
The story involves three meager mice who live in the school and a badger custodian (the school mascot) who doesn't like to work. Looking for cookie crumbs, the mice stumble upon magical tools that transform them into highly charged art mice. They learn to work together and paint a mural using the mural process.
Mural Mice Sophie, R.E. Wall, Katie Nelson, Cory Brunner, Ember
Larson, and badger Tom Von Deck performed in front an audience of 750 children!
The play explained the upcoming project
Students from Amanda Chartiers classes conduct a site evaluation at the wall.
Assistant Director Maggie and the Mice encourage participation by presenting a slideshow and prompting Ms. Chartier's classes to help with the project.
The kids lined up to sign up.
Brainstorming began the next day.
Surveys were considered as hundreds of kids from 6th grade to 8th grade shared their best ideas.
  
The Mural Mice came up with 8 designs!
The kids had a chance to critique the designs, rule out some and to merge the best parts of others.
   
3 revised designs were posted for a week long school-wide election
  
Nominee #1
Nominee #2
Nominee #3
The Winning design!
 
Wall preparation takes a few days...
 
A gigantic grid is laid on the wall and
then comes the drawing...
 
And then comes the paint!
  
Painting took place in shifts. 4-6 students during homeroom class, 3
per hour from the art room, and anybody who wanted to help at lunch
time. Nearly 50 students per day helped to paint.
 
The Badger was a last minute addition to the design
 
|
Mural Projects 
