The idea for a school mural originated when Tim Lemen (MYP/ DP Arts) came to understand that our 2021-2022 Artist-in-Residence – Sandeep Johal was a muralist. It was clear what a great opportunity this would be. Tim is a strong proponent of Learning Beyond the Classroom allowing students to make explicit connections to real world contexts. In art, this means creating work for an authentic audience. What better audience than our school community? Mural art has a long history of community engagement. It has always placed itself as a response to the cloistered world of galleries and museums.
Shifting the priority from creating artwork for assessment to creating artwork for an authentic exhibition was daunting. Our students had to see themselves as artists rather than art students. As the project progressed, the group’s commitment and ownership of the project deepened.
Sandeep’s knowledge and expertise in mural art was invaluable to getting this project off the ground. Tim has already committed to retaining the mural art project as part of the DP curriculum and will continue to collaborate with Sandeep as a guest artist for this project.