A 20-foot-long pastel and unfinished mural took up most of the floor space inside a classroom at Kenai Alternative High School last month. Over the course of several days, students dropped by to contribute to the mural, painting the Kenai bluff, the school, and a group of wolves — the school's mascot.
The waterproof mural, which also depicts local familiarities like Mt. Redoubt and a beluga whale swimming in Cook Inlet, was hung on a wall outside of the school on May 22. About 35 high school students helped with the project.
“A lot of times students make art and then it gets forgotten about or left behind, or they don't have a lot of confidence in it, and so they throw it out," said Kenai Alternative art teacher Anna Widman. "And I feel like if sometimes they would hold on to that for a little while, they'd be able to come back to it and see how amazing it really is.”
Widman says art is the only elective at Kenai Alternative, and that most of the school’s students have never worked on a mural before. She says one of her goals for the project is to instill a lifelong love of art.
According to its website, Kenai Alternative High School offers a holistic approach to learning in a “more individualized environment.” Widman says the mural’s goal of improving accessibility to art aligns with that mission. It offered something for students of all artistic abilities.
Not only that, the mural allowed students to connect and work together toward a common goal.
“I've really seen a wonderful camaraderie with everybody coming in at different times and wanting to be part of this,” said Susan Watkins, a Kasilof-based mural artist who helped with the project. “It's definitely good, you know, working together as a team on a project in the school. And I think it's going to be really nice for the community to have some more art.”
For some students, the new Kenai mural challenged their artistic skills. For others, like sophomore Vincent Guthrie, it provided an escape from the workload that often comes with the end of a school year.
Guthrie says not all who contributed to the mural are enrolled in an art class.
“I think creativity is not something that people get to explore very much in school, aside from, you know, art classes," Guthrie said. "So I think it's nice that everybody gets a chance to explore that.”
Widman, Kenai Alternative’s art teacher, hopes the mural will be a source of pride for the students who helped make it. She says it demonstrates the power and need for art in schools. And that’s important because some teachers are afraid that art programs could be on the chopping block because of the school district’s $17 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.
“I have so many students that tell me that they came to school for art, like for this class," Widman said. "It's a chance for students to express themselves, to decompress. And I think that without that, a lot of students wouldn't even show up.”
The student-made mural was funded by a $2,000 grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Widman hopes there will be more local art projects like this one in the future.
