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MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (WMTV) - High school students are rolling up sleeves and picking up paintbrushes in hopes of raising their community’s awareness for mental health.
The multi-panel mural, worked on by students at Mount Horeb High School, is set to be installed downtown on the wall of the Sunn Cafe. According to art teacher Anna King, students brainstormed ideas for the mural in the spring and are aiming to complete the project by the end of the month.
“I’m hoping that it’ll bring a light to the community in a way that when people walk by it, they just, they see happiness,” sophomore Violet Statz said.
The school partnered with nonprofit Dane Arts Mural Arts, which according to a lead artist, earned a grant to partially cover the roughly six thousand dollar project.
With elements of the mural including a person holding a heart, Addie Dobereiner, junior, said self-love is a big theme. “There’s a lot of self-hatred that goes on, I think, among my peers and among myself, as well. I think it’s important to keep reminding people that you’re important and that taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of others.”
Some students are practicing self-care from the comfort of the art studio.
“For me when I get really overwhelmed or have a lot of feelings, I just paint and it makes me feel a lot better,” Statz said.
In 2018, the school collaborated on another mural to address what she called a “mental health crisis.” Still today, King said students don’t shy from the topic.
“I overheard a really sweet conversation when two kids were painting in my room, and they said, ‘I really think you should give therapy another try,’” she said. “That’s the kind of discussions that we’re hoping are normalized.”
King said other community partners include Sign Art Studio, which will help with the installation of the mural.
Emida Roller is the executive director and lead artist at Dane Arts Mural Arts. She said being involved in painting the murals helped her kids deal with everything going on and calmed their spirits.
“The message is still ‘something needs to be done with what’s going on,’” she said. “The beautification is what’s getting the message across.”
Each Friday at 5 p.m., Emida Roller has been hopping on Facebook Live to highlight the creativity bursting out the doors of Dane Arts Mural Arts (DAMA) on Madison’s southeast side. As the COVID-19 pandemic has complicated things for artists and creators across the globe, DAMA has reacted by setting up a virtual gallery on their website to encourage folks to support their artisans and outreach programming.
Lussier Family Heritage Center has partnered with Dane Arts Mural Arts to bring you a virtual gallery night! Originally, this evening was supposed to occur in person at the Center, a Dane County Parks facility.
The virtual gallery will be open for one month featuring interactive content and opportunities for those at home to exhibit art of their own. DAMA will also be working to bring together communities through online workshops and collaborative design activities.
An arts organization that transforms communities across Dane County needs your help.
The tunnel that stretches under East Washington Avenue between North Fair Oaks Avenue and Wright Street became a lot brighter during the Hawthorne Tunnel mural dedication on Tuesday. Students from Hawthorne Elementary School worked with Dane Arts Mural Arts on the pedestrian tunnel project to add color to the passageway.
The tunnel features artwork by students of signature neighborhood buildings, children in motion, and giant flowers and animals. The neighborhood came together for two days in September to paint the tunnel.
The Co-op is working with Dane Arts Mural Arts (DAMA) on the mural, which will go on the exterior of Willy North.
“There are a lot of hands that go into making the mural … and the idea is to involve everybody because it’s everybody’s mural,” says DAMA Executive Director Emida Roller. “It’s about community — it’s not just public art, it’s community art.”
The center is in discussions with Dane Arts Mural Arts, or DAMA, about possibly creating three large-scale murals on the exterior side of the building, said Dane Arts director of cultural affairs Mark Fraire.
The murals would be a community effort, said Fraire, who also praised Ebert, Sheridan and Ross for their determination to make the center inclusive and to drive more participation in the arts by underrepresented youth.
As a way to educate residents about stormwater pollution, Dane Arts Mural Arts, Dane County and the Madison Area Municipal Stormwater Partnership launched a new storm drain mural program.
One of Madison's newest pieces of public art is a mural on the back of Trinity Lutheran Church, on the near east side. The piece is called "Journey To A New Beginning," and it draws on a number of thematic and visual elements—the ideas of migration, religious concepts like the Holy Trinity, and the Norwegian-American roots of the Trinity church itself.
Dane Arts Mural Arts, a public art project that beautifies neighborhoods through creating murals and training artists on collaborations with youth, painted a mural above a storm drain on a sidewalk near the library entrance.
DAMA works with artists to engage communities in producing works of public art that beautify shared spaces. The organization also involves young people from marginalized communities who have fewer opportunities to participate in artistic projects.
On Sunday, people gathered for a mural blessing for a piece titled "Journey to a New Beginning" at Trinity Lutheran Church in Madison. Jenie Gao, lead artist with Dane Arts Mural Arts, worked with members of the church on the visuals, then church members and community groups helped paint the mural.
Olson Elementary School in Verona celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a mural dedication. Students wrote poems inspired by poet Lorine Niedecker and then worked with local poet Angela Trudell Vasquez on the project. Artists from Dane Arts Mural Arts took the poems and color-washed them to create the scenes for the mural.
On Wednesday, students from Glendale Elementary and La Follette High schools who worked on a mural at the elementary school gathered with artists from Dane Arts Mural Arts and state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, to dedicate the new work of art. The mural features two sandhill cranes.
On Wednesday, students from Glendale Elementary and La Follette High schools who worked on a mural at the elementary school gathered with artists from Dane Arts Mural Arts and state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, to dedicate the new work of art. The mural features two sandhill cranes.
Members of DAMA helped Waunakee students finish painting the storm drain on May 17. They first made an outline of the design in chalk and paint, before students came out to finish the painting, which included messages on the sides of the structure.
In an effort to get people to stop throwing trash and pollutants into storm drains, where rain can carry such harmful materials out to area lakes, rivers and streams, a new program in Dane County has students painting murals on them to draw attention to the issue.
“Public art is an amazingly effective learning/teaching tool — students involved in the design will become natural advocates and informed stewards, and their vibrant artwork will draw attention and inspire action around this important effort to protect local waters,” a statement from DAMA to the city reads. “DAMA will be working with a total of 10 schools this spring to design and paint murals on storm drain inlets across the county.”
They believed creating art could create awareness of mental health at their school...and in the community beyond. Fellow senior Lexi Ricci said, "It kind of sparked me, and Kristen, and Taylor Roys to think about what we can do to bring light to this...to bring awareness, and also to help others while we're doing it. There are so many people who are suffering in silence with mental health disorders."
The three seniors approached their art teachers with the idea of painting a huge "mental wellness mural" that would hang on the school's wall. The week before spring break, they teamed up with Dane Arts Mural Arts and more than 1,000 fellow students and community members to bring it to life.
Community members and West High School SAIL Program students, along with Dane Arts Mural Arts, worked on the South Madison Police Station Mural in the community room at the Madison Police Department South District, 825 Hughes Place, in Madison.
"Water, Land and Sky" mural on the Monona Well #3 in Monona was painted by community members and artists from Dane Arts Mural Arts. It shows animals found in Monona and includes a portrait of artist Harry Whitehorse, a Ho-Chunk elder. Students from MG21 Liberal Arts Charter School also helped with the project. The mural is located at the corner of Raywood Road and West Broadway.
A high-school student stood near the door of a classroom in Hoyt School, observing quietly as his classmates painted. He appeared nervous to join in. Artist Sonya Sankaran calmly handed him a paint brush and reassured him that mistakes could always be fixed.
Dane Arts Mural Arts guided the village through the Main Street mural project last summer, and in 2018 will explore the possibility of murals around storm drains to remind residents to be mindful of stormwater runoff effects.
After the Dane Arts Mural Arts artists created the design, they brought it in pieces to Waunakee High School, where art students painted it on a fabric called polytab. The sections were then applied to the west facing façade of the Waunakee Furniture building, and a protective coating was then applied.
Beth Roberts, Waunakee High School art teacher, added that about 45 student arts participated in the painting.
Mayor Mary O’Connor welcomed the audience and then turned over the microphone to former Mayor Bob Miller, who instigated the project and gave a brief rundown of how “Water, Land, and Sky” came to be.
Dane Arts Mural Arts (DAMA) helps create a sense of belonging, especially for youth, by beautifying communities and humanizing neighborhoods. Madison Community Foundation has supported DAMA's work since its inception.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes much, much more. That’s what participants in DAMA's programs have discovered. You’ve probably seen some of the murals DAMA has created: the Hawthorne Tunnel Mural under East Washington Avenue near Hawthorne Elementary school, the Thrive mural at the Dane County Job Center on Aberg Avenue, or the Good Things Grow Here mural at the Willy Street Co-op North.