Youth Gone Wild

Pickerington middle-schoolers’ murals adorn nature preserve

WWhile some youths are busy tagging bathroom stalls with meaningless graffiti, the art students at Ridgeview Junior High School were busy making their mark on The Wilds – in a constructive, creative way.

Art teacher Cheryl Knox’s seventh- and eighth-grade art classes worked on two murals during the school year, and both are now on display in the bathhouses at The Wilds, a wildlife preserve owned by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and located outside of Zanesville. School-aged artists were ideal for the job because they make up a large percentage of the visitors at the preserve’s camps, for whose benefit the bathhouses were built.

“We hoped to spruce up our camp with some color, and since most of our visitors to our camp are youth, we wanted art created by them,” says Mallory Vopal, conservation education specialist at The Wilds. “We love that they incorporated our landscapes and animals into their art, but we let them use their own creativity when it came to what the subjects of their work would be.”

Besides paying for the paint and giving the students a place to publicly display their art, The Wilds offered Knox’s class a trip to the park free of charge.

“They sponsored a trip for us to visit during Memorial Day weekend and paid for 64 people to come,” Knox says. “All the students were invited and they got to see the site firsthand. Some of these students may have not experienced this otherwise because of tough financial situations.”

The first mural is a depiction of the landscape a visitor would find at the park.

Lily pads, blue skies, flowers and trees make up the piece.

“I went on the trip and it helped me see everything naturally,” says seventh-grader Lali Ernst. “The project was fun, but it was difficult getting the specifics down.”

The second mural portrays a crosssection of the earth and the life that lives within. This taught the students more than just artistic values.

“When we did the cross-section view, I taught our students some lessons that they wouldn’t have usually learned in my classroom,” Knox says. “We talked about the dangers and benefits of fracking. I based my lessons around these murals and tried to incorporate other lessons into it. They learned a little about science, history and social studies throughout the project.”

Knox visualized themes of The Wilds and worked them into her class projects as well.

“If the art connects with them, then they will remember it,” she says.

The project took only a few months to complete, but the offer to do the project stemmed from a conversation Knox had during an unrelated meeting years ago.

“Five or six years back, a friend and I went to an Environmental Protection Agency conference and we ran into someone from The Wilds,” she says. “They offered us the chance to paint buses for them, so we took that on. During that time, I brought every student I had to come and work on it.”

Painting the buses in the cold weather – the work took place in November –was a challenge, but a rewarding one.

“We painted a second bus in one day,” Knox says. “We were in a bus garage trying to finish it up, and everything came out great.”

The Wilds staffers were impressed with the work and offered Knox’s class the opportunity to install the two murals.

“Last summer, we saw another representative from The Wilds who remembered our work on the buses,” Knox says. “One thing led to another and they offered to let us mural the bathhouses.”

Knox believes that this project will be beneficial to her students for years to come.

“I like seeing my kids making connections and letting them make a mark on the world,” she says. “As they grow up, they will make time to do it as adults. You can see the pride in their eyes. This is their work. I’m just the director.”

The murals have benefits for both parties, says Vopal.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to reach out and connect to an Ohio school,” she says. “Since this is for our Education Department here, we love to work with area students and to provide a chance for a learning opportunity on their end as well. It’s a win-win situation.”

Striking though they may be, the murals cannot fully express what the students accomplished throughout their time working on the project, Knox says.

“Pictures can’t tell a whole story,” she says. “These students can use their talents to make a difference. Each student has a gift, and we found a way to get them all involved.”

Eighth-grader Nicole Tantala looks forward to showing off the project she helped create.

“I’m excited to have my family go see it when it’s all done,” she says. “It was so great being able to work in collaboration with my classmates. Everyone has played a part.”

Stephan Reed is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@pubgroupltd.com. “Like”

By Hillary Doyle