Bellerose Composite High School and Muriel Martin Elementary School are collaborating with the Sturgeon Hospital to create a four-panel mural at one of the hospital’s patient units, and everyone involved is excited for St. Albert to see it.
“My hope is the mayor comes, because it’s been such a beautiful project for the entire community and the city of St. Albert,” Bellerose Composite High School’s art teacher Lindsay Bracken said.
The project has been in progress since September, where the Bellerose Composite High School’s Grade 11 IB art students are working with a Grade 4 class from Muriel Martin Elementary School to create this “spectacular” art project. The mural will be going up outside of a unit at the hospital where all the patients can see now is a brick wall.
“[The patients] just stare at a blank wall, and it’s really disheartening for them,” Bracken said.
Bracken said the project started with a small interaction with a friend who works as a nurse at the Sturgeon Hospital. The friend contacted the art teacher afterwards and pitched the idea of creating a mural to lift patients’ spirits. Bracken was reluctant at first, but that changed when she interviewed the unit's patients about the project.
“While I was at the hospital, I saw how excited my own children got about the mural. I thought, ‘How neat would it be if we could do something that was collaborative with both schools,’” Bracken said.
The theme for the mural is "sheep in a meadow" with very bright colours and a mystical fairy-tale feel to it. The inspiration for the theme came from when Bracken and her sons interviewed patients at the unit asking, "What do you see?" for the mural, and a patient said her vision was seeing sheep in a meadow.
The teamwork from both schools is reflected in the mural as each school puts their mark on the piece. The Grade 11 art students created the rough draft of the mural, and the Muriel Martin Grade 4 class did an under-painting to make the final product look more saturated. The Grade 4 kids also added their thumbprints on painted flowers.
The kids were not the only ones who are participating in this collaboration. Bracken said the principal and shop teacher at Bellerose Composite High School have helped collect and transport the wood used for the mural. And getting the proper materials hasn't been easy or cheap.
"For someone that's never done a mural, it's taken an entire army/community to get this going," Bracken said.
Despite all the hard work, Bracken said it has been a fun experience working with the kids and hopes the mural will bring joy, happiness, laughter and tears, like it has for the ones creating it.
“I just think that art can change people’s day, people’s mood, and people’s perspectives. And instead of looking out the window and staring at a brick wall, they can escape and look at something that might lift their spirits.”
The mural is set to be done at the end of February, and the official unveiling will take place at the Sturgeon Hospital in May or June.
