With the newly constructed south wing opening for use this fall at DePaul Prep, students and faculty alike have noticed that decoration is sparse. Art Honor Society moderator Victoria Aguilar says that “we definitely have the artwork, we just need a space for it.”
With the help of students and the work of the Greenstar Movement, DePaul Prep’s campus will have a brand new artistic addition to the south wing in the form of a mural designed with student and staff input. The mural will stand in the hallway connecting the south and west wings, and will be in the form of a mosaic.
The Greenstar Movement is a community based project that aims to install art pieces in public spaces, especially schools. Past projects have included works at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, as well as elementary schools and underpasses across the city of Chicago. These projects mostly include mosaic style pieces.
Student involvement was welcomed and encouraged throughout the process of designing the mosaic. All DePaul Prep students were invited to participate in the design workshop with the Greenstar movement through general calls for participation on Schoology.
Additionally, some were specifically nominated by faculty and staff. Aguilar says that student nominations were based on more than just general interest. “We based the nomination on not just [students] artistic abilities, but also their voice,” she says, adding that students who were nominated “really represent what DePaul Prep is all about.” Students were nominated by faculty and staff from across the building, not just within the art department.
Sophomore Harper Jordan says that she enjoyed being a part of the process because she got to “make a difference at DePaul Prep through art, and be a part of the first group to do something like this.”
“We really wanted to make sure that our students were part of the process for coming up with different themes and ideas,” says Eleanor Cain, DePaul Prep’s chief strategy officer, who worked closely with the project. Almost 50 different students helped with the design process, across all grade levels.
Planning for the mural took place in two different sessions in the past month. The meetings started with a presentation by the Greenstar Movement about past projects. Students and the Greenstar Movement were given images and themes that the administration wanted to be included within the mural. Cain says that the question posed to students was “what is important to you as students of DePaul College Prep?”
With an idea of the central themes in mind, students then pitched ideas and designs of the mural to the representatives from the Greenstar Movement. Students brainstormed ideas, drew their own sketches, and collaborated with others to create concepts and ideas for the design of the mosaic. The final design of the mural will be based on the drawings and concepts provided by the students, says Cain.
The Greenstar Movement is currently in the process of combining the designs that they received from students into a finalized design, which will then be put up in the school. Construction of the mural will begin next time next semester, and will also be a student-aided process, says Aguilar.
The south wing mosaic is a part of an initiative by the school to have more artwork in and around DePaul Prep. Cain says it has been important to DePaul Prep’s leadership to have a more decorated school environment. “Art is just a really important part of our community, and Chicago as a whole,” she says.
Further efforts to include more decoration in the school will include the display of photographs. These will come from artists across the Chicago area, as well as parents and DePaul Prep community members. Aguilar says that it “is definitely a goal” to increase the artistic presence around the school.
