Students at Edward Bleeker JHS 185 learned a big lesson this semester – a 32-foot long lesson in social justice.
More than 400 seventh and eighth graders and students in the school’s after-school program created a hand-painted mural consisting of 1,000 tiles that reflected their views of tolerance and diversity.
The purpose of the mural was to celebrate the school’s diverse student body and to encourage students to build community, said Valerie Sawinski, the principal of JHS 185.
After the tiles were completed, the mural was installed in the school’s hallway, with a border around the artwork featuring words like “respect” and “fairness” written in more than 10 languages.
The mural was created with the help of a teaching artist from the Great Neck Art Center, a not-for-profit cultural arts organization whose instructors teach after-school classes at JHS 185 in drama, Latin dance, fencing, and art portfolio compilation.
“Students were able to not only meet and work with professional artists but were able to see how individual pieces were put together with hundreds of others to create something beautiful and permanent,” said Caroline Sorokoff of the development department at the Great Neck Arts Center.
As an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Partners in Education program, the Great Neck Arts Center regularly works with schools to develop workshops for teachers and students on how to incorporate art in the classroom.
“By being involved in the arts, students perform better academically in school, attendance improves, there is more opportunity for students to develop creativity and express themselves, and it gives them options to apply for seats in talent arts programs in high school,” said Sawinski. “It also exposes them to the arts as a possible career path.”
This spring the Great Neck Arts Center conducted workshops at JHS 185 for teachers, parents and students on how to use drama and the visual arts to teach tolerance in schools.
More Great Neck Arts Center workshops, which are funded by JPMorgan Chase, are planned for next year at JHS 185. Students enrolled in the after-school program’s ceramic class will participate in a year-long project creating a three-dimensional mural that will be installed in the school cafeteria.
The Great Neck Arts Center is also planning arts outreach programs, including music, dance, and visual arts programs, at other elementary and middle schools in Bayside and Flushing.
