8 Murals At Schools

About the project

We created 8 Murals At Schools In Waterloo Region. This series of 8 murals is apart of Community Canvas, which is a Smart Waterloo Region project to get youth inspired, youth designed, and youth created artwork and art projects across the region. Each mural was based on a theme from the 9 dimensions of The Canadian Index of Child And Youth Well-Being. Based of the ideas, concepts, conversations and images that are created by youth, each of our 8 artists created a mural that is symbolic of a future where all youth feel connected to each of the  dimensions of you wellbeing. 

Co-creating murals with youth

Over the course of 2 weeks we had 3 virtual meetings 40+ youth. During these meetings, we had activities and open discussion about what they would like to see on the murals. We also had a design a mural worksheet and asked the participants to visually show us their ideas. Many youth participants went a step further and asked youth at their school what their ideas were. In total, we received 936 ideas and concepts from youth!

Activities we did

Who are the artists?

Hayley Alcott - JACOB HESPELER SS 

Theme: We are free to play 

Logan Soeder - SOUTHWOOD SS 

Theme: We belong 

Moumita Roychowdhury - WELLESLEY PS

Theme: We are participating 

BrunoSmoky- BLUEVALE CI
Theme: We are connected to the environment 

Ron Stevens - ELMIRA DSS 

Theme: We are learning 

Chad Dupuis - WATERLOO OXFORD DSS 

Theme: We are protected and secure 

Shalak Attack - EASTWOOD CI

Theme: We are healthy 

Paul McDonald - WRDSB EDUCATION CENTRE
Theme: We are happy and respected 

The 8 Murals

Our partners

Key takeaways

Smart Waterloo Region has a goal to bring more youth led art to Waterloo Region and this project is just the beginning! We learned a lot about what it takes to create a mural, and may have been a bit ambitious by making a series of 8 murals rather than starting off with just one mural. But what can we say, we're thinking big and 8 murals is BIG!

Learnings

We learned that children and youth had ideas that none of us even thought of! They exceed our expectations and made this project shine :) 

If we could time-travel and start this project again...

• We would have more communication and organization
• Start planning this project in Spring so that painting could begin in Summer
• Spend more time on youth engagement
• Try to do the murals on walls at ground level, rather than on panels that are very high up on buildings

Thanks to...

Thank you to Paul at The Firm, all of the artists, the WRDSB, and all of our paint/equipment suppliers for this project! And to all the youth that participated, we thank you for participation and hope that you will be apart of our projects! A special thanks goes to Elizabeth & Jahmeeks for leading this project! We appreciate all of you and your hard work <3

Now what?

We are looking to create more murals! But this time, we want the murals to be smaller and in collaboration with local community organizations! If you are an organization, all you need is a space for a mural and we can work together to put one up with you. Feel free to reach out if your interested.