Mural by MLK Middle School students to be unveiled at park
5/16/2024, 6 p.m.
For the past five weeks, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School students have collaborated on a nature-inspired mural in Jefferson Park as part of an after-school program. The completed mural will be presented 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at the park.
The free after-school program, In Tune, is a mural project led by Open Space teaching artists and professional muralists Auz Miles and Birdie Oleniacz. Open Space, founded in 2021, is a nonprofit dedicated to art education and nature-based learning.
Guided by Ms. Miles and Ms. Oleniacz, students learned the process of creating a mural by photographing nature elements found in the park, collaborating on the design of the composition and painting the outward-facing 24-foot by 8-foot stage wall of the Jefferson Park Stage House. The project aims to connect students to nature in a way that helps them recognize their interconnection with their community.
“By learning more about the vegetation and wildlife in the park, as well as the varied histories of the park, students are collaboratively creating a mural that expresses the energy unique to this location,” according to a press release from Open Space.
To learn more, visit openspaceed.org.
