Upper School Students, First Graders, and Kindergartners Create Mural to Brighten Cottage Deck
At the Jackson Academy kindergarten cottage’s deck, a plain white wall provided the canvas for a new collaborative art installation. Kindergarten-sized handprint flowers now grow there. Upper School art students contributed to the project, creating connections across generations of Raiders. It all started when Sarah Love, head of the Lower School, saw potential.
“Last year, Mrs. Love wanted to do something colorful and meaningful on the blank white wall,” said Bebe Sumner, who teaches kindergarten at JA. The teachers turned to Upper School Art Teacher Susan Ingram for advice on making their vision a reality. Ingram recruited several of her students and equipped them with latex paint and a plan. “My students painted the grass and flower stems in two 8-foot sections to represent last year’s K5 and this year’s K5,” Ingram said
Jenna Daly ’21 and seniors Natalie Turner and Annalee LeDuff volunteered, each adding their unique artistic touch to the mural. “As I’m going to be in college soon, it means a lot to me knowing that I made my mark on a small part of JA, literally,” said Annalee. “It’s also exciting to know future classes will contribute to this sweet tradition.”
After the paint dried, the kindergarten teachers helped their students shape the flowers that now adorn the stems painted by the Upper School students. Students took turns having their hands painted, and with gooey pigment oozing across their palms, walked to the wall. Teachers and students worked together to press each handprint onto the wall firmly, and when they peeled their hands away, the children laughed with delight or gazed curiously at what they had done. The first graders also added their handprints to the wall, having been the first kindergarten class to study in the cottage. All of them were contributing to the first portion of this long-term art project.
Over the years, the project will grow, gradually brightening the space as each successive kindergarten class adds their hand-painted flowers to the wall after Upper School students paint stems and grass. “Each little hand placed on the wall will be remembered as a child that was loved and taught at our great school for many years to come. Hopefully, these children will come back to JA, place their adult hand on their kindergarten hand, and feel the love from the past,” Sumner said. “These girls started a project that many will adore for years to come.”
