My name is Sonia, and I am a high school student in 12th grade. I have been a summer intern at AWBW for a few years, and as a part of my work, I organized a community durational mural at my high school in Los Angeles. The focus of this mural was heavily based on my personal experience building my own durational practice with the theme of joy. I found a lot of meaning in my practice and thought it would be a fantastic topic for a school-wide community art piece.
I began with sharing a couple of notes on the significance of durational art and murals, as well as a step-by-step plan for creating the art piece, with the student wellbeing representatives at my school. They were incredibly supportive of my plan and we began to start the process of creating the piece.
Here are some bits and pieces of what I shared with the students and staff:
“The purpose of creating a Marlborough durational mural is to not only cultivate joy and create a more nuanced understanding of happiness, but also to show that art can come in many forms, and commitment over time can be powerful when you see the final result.
We want this durational mural to focus on glimmers of joy. So often, joy can seem like an endpoint that we have to reach. Marlborough students can be especially prone to thinking that they can only reach happiness once they have fully checked steps off of their list. This can oftentimes feel like a trap, because, usually, once we check off these initial steps, we don’t feel content, and continue adding more and more. Eventually, it can feel like happiness will never be reached.
Our hope with this project is to show that there are glimmers of joy all around us. As a community project, even on days when someone may not be able to find any, the glimmers of joy from someone else can spread to them, showing that it is truly all around.”
To begin, I sketched out a simple drawing of a heart onto four large poster boards. Then, I cut the drawing up into 60 equally-sized pieces, one for each student group (“advisory”) of 7-10 students. The students, during the weekly advisory block, would write a few words about what brought them joy that week, for a total of 10 weeks for the duration of the second semester. The time and method used to write down the words differed by advisory group. Some did it at the beginning and passed the “puzzle piece” around before beginning the lesson; others used it as an “exit ticket” to conclude the lessons. Some wrote words as a part of their invitation, and others draw small doodles to represent joyful moments.
The project culminated in a beautiful art piece that is currently displayed outside my school’s library. Lots of students and advisors enjoyed the project, and overall it was a great contribution to our community. Reflecting on the project, one student explained that “I enjoyed being able to reflect on the things that made life worthwhile, and it also made me more aware of when those things were actually happening, so I could appreciate them more in the moment.” Another student remembered that the project “helped me reflect on the good if the week was bad”. The mural also made a positive impact in the advisory space. Lots of students agreed that the project brought their advisory groups closer. Another student reflected that “[the mural] allowed a space to share meaningful moments in our lives and expand upon them to each other, like there were a few times someone wrote something, someone else asked a question, and we learned more about the experience and person!”
Overall, this experience was quite transformative for the community and highly rewarding and I hope that the sparks of gratitude and joy continue to shine in my school’s community.
