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Global Mural Project

Album Description

This is the second year our school is participating in the Global Traveling Mural Project.  In partnerships with 9 other schools, each school makes a 10 foot long mural, cuts it into 10 pieces, keeps one piece, and then sends the remaining 9 pieces to different schools around the country.  In exchange, those schools send a piece of their mural to the other schools.  For those interested, there is still time to sign up--the pieces of the mural need to be mailed by November 30.  

I have students in PK-4th grade working on the mural.  To begin, I wanted to introduce them to murals. 

  • What are they?
  • How are they created?
  • Why are they created? 

We began by looking at murals from the Great Depression and Works Progress Administration. 

  • What do these murals depict?
  • How were the subject matters chosen?
  • Do they show scenes to which the viewer could relate?
  • Are they relatable now?

Similar to the WPA murals which grew out of the Great Depression, Beautify's Back to the Streets was started during the pandemic to rebuild local communities through art.  

We read F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell's Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood.  We talked about how murals are all over our city, so their "homework" is to be on the lookout for murals as they go places with their family.

(Of course, we then worked on our mural which is a gratitude tree.  Each student is writing or drawing something for which they are grateful on a leaf and will then place it on the mural.)  

  Pre K - 2   3 - 5   Art/Music   Library   Murals   WPA   Maybe Something Beautiful   bestof 

One of several Great Depression-era murals mounted in the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates Building, once the Des Moines, Iowa, Public Library

Teaching Notes

Think about how the artist used all of the space.  Why would the artist have chosen this as the subject?

Reference note

Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2016-08-13.
Subject Headings: -  United States--Iowa--Polk County--Des Moines
-  America
-  WPA murals
-  World Food Prize Hall of Laureates building
-  Works Progress Administration
-  Murals
-  Grant Wood
Genre: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020
Notes: -  Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
-  Often referred to as W.P.A. murals, because the artists who created them between 1937 and 1941 were paid by the job-creating New Deal Works Progress Administration, the paintings depict the history of Des Moines from prehistoric times to the mid-1930s. The work was supervised by Iowa native Grant Wood, one of the greatest American artists of the first-half of the 20th century and the creator of the iconic painting "American Gothic."
-  Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
-  Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2016; (DLC/PP-2016:103-1).
-  Forms part of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 39923 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.39923

WPA mural, Cohen Building, Washington, D.C.

Reference note

Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2008 December.
Subject Headings: -  Government facilities--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)--2000-2010
-  Murals--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)--2000-2010
-  United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)
Notes: -  Architect: Charles Klauder. Built 1939- 1940.
-  Photographed as part of an assignment for the General Services Administration.
-  Title information, date, and subject note provided by the photographer.
-  Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
-  Gift; Carol M. Highsmith; 2009; (DLC/PP-2009:083).
-  Forms part of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 03793 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.03793

First floor WPA mural at elevator at the U.S. Courthouse, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Reference note

Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2013 April.
Subject Headings: -  United States--New Mexico--Albuquerque
-  U.S. Courthouses
-  James A. Wetmore
-  GSA
-  WPA
-  Murals
-  WPA murals
Genre: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020
Notes: -  Built in 1930 by architect James A. Wetmore.
-  Photographed as part of an assignment for the General Services Administration.
-  Title, date and keywords from information provided by the photographer.
-  Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
-  Gift; Carol M. Highsmith; 2009; (DLC/PP-2009:083).
-  Forms part of: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 24694 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.24694

Mural ("Transportation") by John Augustus Walker on permanent display in the Museum of Mobile lobby, Mobile, Alabama

Reference note

Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2010 April 14.
Subject Headings: -  United States--Alabama--Mobile
-  John Augustus Walker
-  Murals
-  America
Genre: Digital photographs--Color--2000-2010
Notes: -  John Augustus Walker (1901-1967) was a well-known Alabama Gulf Coast artist of the Depression era who was commissioned to undertake several art projects for the Works Progress Administration. Walker's preferred subject matter ranged from Mardi Gras, fantasy and historical themes to landscapes and portraiture.
-  Title, date, subject note, and keywords provided by the photographer.
-  Credit line: The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
-  Gift; George F. Landegger; 2010; (DLC/PP-2010:090).
-  Forms part of: George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 06642 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.06642

Illinois WPA Post Office Murals

Teaching Notes

Many of post offices around the country were gifted with post office murals as a part of the WPA programs. I am fortunate that my town has one of these beautiful murals. It depicts miners coming home. We are no longer a coal town but what history it has. You may want to check this out.