University of Southern California - El Rodeo Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Children paint murals as part of JEP project It beautifies the community. It helps remove the graffiti from the walls. It provides students with an artistic outlet that many of them never had before. What is it ? It is a mural painting. Thanks to the help from students involved in the Joint Educational Project (JEP) murals went up this year at three elementary schools near the university. Mural painting projects were con- ducted during the fall semester at Vermont Avenue School, Magnolia Avenue School and 32nd Street School, across from the university. The move towards mural painting was community wide and started in the East Los Angeles barrios, where murals had been going up in place of graffiti as a symbol of community pride. Murals were also stressed as a portion of the Los Angeles cele- bration of the American bicentennial. The mural at the Vermont Avenue School was placed outside on the wall of the school plaza. The design was of silhouettes of children playing. It was designed to reflect what the students usually did in the area. At Magnolia Avenue School, a group of fourth and fifth graders took pictures drawn by the kinder- garten class, enlarged them, and then painted them on the wall of the kin- dergarten classroom. 32nd Street School used indoor murals painted on paper. One of the murals was of student self-portraits and another was of sea creatures. These murals were hung on the walls in the various classrooms. Not only were the murals enjoy- able for the students to make, they also brought favorable response from the surrounding community, said Varnette Honeywood, the JEP art programs coordinator. Members of the community came in and said how much they liked the murals and how much they thought the murals improved the appearance of the schools, she said. We also found that lots of students ' self-concepts were raised. They had to work with other students and plan. All of the children got involved in either the painting or the planning. The elementary school classes were aided by groups of two or three JEP students, who work at the schools as part of their use classes. Like other JEP projects, this one was designed to expand and continue during the spring semester at other schools that work with JEP. Unlike other programs though, this one had an extra benefit. The results were available for everyone to see and the murals were still there after the end of the semester when the use students left. I I