Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/615432
Arts Around School Roman Murals Walking through Latin's buildings, you may discover that the walls actually can talk…through a collection of vibrant and meaningful murals. During the 2006-07 school year, fifth and sixth graders contributed their ideas and artistic talents to the new middle school building by creating a large mural on the east wall of the lobby titled "Layers of History." e work was a collaboration with Chicago artists Corinne Peterson and Ginny Sikes, who were hired as artists-in-residence for the year. e final piece is full of student-imagined representations of the city, including the lost shoreline of Lake Michigan, the Chicago Fire, the original Native American population, and today's skyline. If you look closely, you can see a heart in the center of the mural, a reference to Nelson Algren's classic Chicago, City on the Make, which described the gritty, urban environment of the Loop as "the rusty iron heart." In the lower school, art teacher Brenda Friedman leads a mural-making after school activity (ASR) for third and fourth graders. During Latin's 125th anniversary year, the group used the walls of the rooftop playground to bring to life the "Lower School Song," composed by teachers Mary Maj and Isabelle Lawrence in 1960. Last year, the group added a vibrant representation of the skyline, and this year they plan to work on a giant mosaic. In the upper school each spring, ninth graders collaborate to create a mural in the upper school cafeteria as part of the ninth grade Global Cities visual arts curriculum. Students have designed murals about Chicago arts in the style of muralist Diego Rivera; memories of the 125th celebration inspired by Kerry James Marshall; and contemporary Chicagoans in the style of omas Hart Benton. For Betty Lark Ross, Visual Arts Department chair, the exciting part of the project is that it changes every year. "e Global Cities murals reflect the ideas of each class of freshmen and what they are learning, and we enjoy it for a year and then look forward to something new." 18 top to bottom Lower school students working on their annual mural of the Chicago skyline. The middle school mural on permanent display in the lobby. The ninth grade mural brightens the upper school cafeteria. Around School