Dozens of sixth through eighth grade students from more than a dozen Sangamon County schools came to Lincoln Magnet School today to help artist, Jared Bader, paint parts of a large mural that will be installed later this year at the Springfield-Sangamon County Transportation Hub.
The Sangamon County mural advisory committee wanted to invite students from across the county to participate in this unique opportunity to help paint-by-number a portion of the mural that features historic buildings, modes of transportation and people from Sangamon County.
“We are so excited to host the Sangamon County students and the artist at this event at our school as we will be a next-door neighbor to the new transportation Hub. We will be able to see the new Hub and mural outside our windows,” said Nichole Heyen, Lincoln Magnet School principal. “What an awesome opportunity to be part of this historic project!”
“We were so thankful to be invited and afford this opportunity to our students to work with a professional artist on this important project in our community,” said Megan Delai, Tri-City school art teacher. “We will be so excited to see the mural be installed and the students will be able to know that they helped paint part of it.”
Throughout the afternoon, the artist, Jared Bader, hosted sessions with the students explaining how he came up with the mural, his experience working on large outdoor murals and how to paint portions of the mural.
“I was very honored to be selected to create and install one of these large murals at the Hub. I always love getting the community involved, especially students, in the project because it really draws them in and helps bring energy and pride to the project,” said Bader. “It was so helpful to have the Springfield Art Association involved in today’s efforts as well as the gracious hosts here at Lincoln Magnet.”
Public and private school art teachers with sixth through eighth grade classrooms were invited to participate in this project. The schools that signed up to participate included: Auburn Jr. High, Glenwood Intermediate, Glenwood Middle School, Tri-City Schools, Cantrall Intermediate School, Our Saviors Lutheran School, Iles, Franklin Middle School, Christ the King, Blessed Sacrament, Rochester Intermediate School, Rochester Junior High School and Lincoln Magnet.
For the past nine years Sangamon County has partnered on the Grow our Own Minority Participation program to focus efforts on getting young people inspired and involved in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) career paths.