Mural Supplies 4 our Sister School, Pablo Casals

My name is Elissa Cedarleaf Dahl and I am a muralist and art teacher for Justice Page School in Minneapolis. This year, my 160 Murals Class students are doing a mural exchange project with students from the Pablo Casals School in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. We are partnering with teacher Alenis Torres and her talented students to create murals for both of our schools. We are sharing our processes, conducting interviews with each other, critiquing designs and exploring how art can impact our communities.

Below is a photo of six designs the Pablo Casals students already made incorporating elements of their school, ours, COVID and the arts. Next we will begin designing our mural for JPS and share our ideas with them! We are also preparing a slideshow video that shares about our school city and our youth!

Last summer I delivered 360 square feet of primed polytab fabric to their school (see photos below) for a 12' X 30' mural and Alenis and I conducted planning meetings. This fundraiser is to raise money for the gel we will use to affix the polytab mural to the main entrance wall on the outside of their school. The money will also cover costs for some of their paint. All materials purchased with this fundraiser will be ordered and shipped from Novacolor Paint company out of California.

25% of schools in Puerto rico have not reopened since Hurricane Maria and Pablo Casals school continues to do hybrid learning due to the pandemic. They experience internet shortages, power outages and depend on students to bring in supplies for their art classes. Both our students at Justice Page and students in Bayamón have been through a lot this year (and longer) and this mural exchange will be a chance for our them to connect around art, exchange stories and document their lives.

Photo below will be the future location of the Pablo Casals mural with help from this Go Fund Me!