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Schoolwide art project celebrates the beauty, diversity of Peakview student body
Stunning.
The wall-sized mural in the hallway of Peakview Elementary can stop people in their tracks.
“I think it looks amazing!” fourth-grader Ky Reed said, after admiring the art project that involved all 488 Peakview students.
The schoolwide mural was the brainchild of art teacher Darci Liley. Her goal was to create a large-scale project that celebrates and honors Peakview’s beautifully diverse students and community. She asked each student to paint a 6-by-6-inch square of paper with the color of their skin tone, a process that began with research.
“First, students spent some time learning the science behind why people are born with different skin tones, focusing on genetics and levels of melanin found in the skin,” Liley explained. That naturally led to authentic and real conversations around the important issues of race, inclusion and acceptance. “Our children are never too young to have conversations regarding compassion for others,” she said.
Initially, fifth-grader Ilithyia Cunningham wasn’t too excited about the project. “At first I thought it would be a little boring, because we were just painting our skin tones,” Cunningham said. “And then as we got into it, I realized how many other skin tones there were.”
In fact, as students dove deeper into the science of mixing acrylic paints to match their unique skin tones, they learned that characterizing people as only white, black or brown was far too limiting.
“There was orange, black, brown, beige and white and I took white, beige, brown and a tiny bit of orange,” second-grader Violet Kinslow said about the colors she used to match her skin tone.
Finding the perfect match was a process of trial and error.
“It was kind of hard,” fifth-grader Antonio Lumba said. “I held my arm right next to it to see if I got the right color.”
“The best part for me as a teacher was hearing each artist ‘ooh and ah’ with excitement when they were able to perfectly match their skin tone and then proudly show it off for other classmates to see,” Liley said.
A year filled with social unrest, political divisiveness and separation caused by a global pandemic seemed like the perfect time for a project that brought students together and fostered awareness and understanding.
“As an art educator, I strive to push myself further than simply teaching artistic techniques and processes,” Liley said. “I want to foster creative thinking in my young artists and develop projects that connect with students on a deeper and more personal level.
“This project was so meaningful and affirming for Peakview students and was a simple way to honor their own unique identity. When all these individual squares came together, it created such a stunning representation of our students. This project has heart and our students are very proud of it,” Liley added.
“It was great!” second-grader Chol Chol said.
“It will probably be here forever,” added Kinslow.
Posted 5/4/2021.