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Victor Maccharoli - Santa Barbara Museum of Art instructor Susan Griffin and a group of kids who worked on the mural at Aliso Elementary School in Carpinteria talk in front of their artwork before yesterday's unveiling ceremony.

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Students participate in summer mural program

By ERIC LINDBERG — Sept. 2, 2009

A group of students at Aliso Elementary School in Carpinteria drew inspiration from a painting currently on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art while constructing a mural as part of the museum’s summer youth mural program.

Third and fourth graders participating in the school’s summer academy took part in the creative process of putting together a mural by studying the original painting — Max Pechstein’s “The Old Bridge” — before adding their own details and concepts under the tutelage of the museum’s senior art teacher, Susan Griffin.

“They loved it,” said Tricia Price, principal at the elementary school where the mural was officially unveiled yesterday afternoon. She added, “It’s gotten a lot of positive attention and we’ve gotten a lot of positive comments about how it has brightened up the area.”

The 20-foot by 8-foot art project features ocean waves, sea birds, train tracks, trees and other features common to the Carpinteria community. The “bridge” theme of the mural played well with the overall theme of the summer academy, Price said, which was “Bridge to Learning.”

“It was a nice balance to the academy,” she said, adding that students also received instruction in technology and science, including the construction of model bridges. “It was nice to have a theme that worked across the curriculum.”

The mural, which has been on display at the elementary school since the end of the academy, has also been covered with an anti-graffiti coating that will allow school officials to clean off any graffiti without damaging the artwork.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has been holding its summer mural project series for 15 years and typically brings in local youth to paint the mural at the Ridley-Tree Education Center. However, this year the mural was constructed at the school itself, museum officials said, allowing a greater connection with the community during its creation.

“By creating this year’s mural on the site where it will remain, we were able to involve the entire Aliso community in designing a work that had a direct relationship to where they live, work, learn and play,” said Patsy Hicks, the museum’s director of education.

In addition to the mural project, the museum also partnered with the Storyteller Children’s Center for the second year to involve local youth in the creation of a permanent ceramic tile installation.

Tina Villadolid, the museum’s coordinator of community art programs, guided 20 students between 3 and 5 years old as they explored the theme of art and nature. The children worked for a month and a half — sketching at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens before putting together the handmade ceramic tiles at the Ridley-Tree Education Center.

Inspired by an exhibition of work by Brett Weston currently on display at the museum, the tile art will be unveiled later this month at the Storyteller Children’s Center’s original site at the First Congregational Church.

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