In the courtyard of Cottonwood Community School, alongside the court where kids play basketball, a group of CCS students stand on scaffolds and ladders, armed with paintbrushes. On the wall before them shines a brightly colored mural — a green pasture cut by a winding blue river, heading off to the sun-tinged horizon. Over the river stands a rainbow bridge with the words “Working Together” along it. The kids are living up to that motto, working together to add beauty to the nondescript wall of a school building.
Joan Bourque, a Clarkdale resident who for years has led a public art project, Murals For Everyone, directs the kid in their painting. In January, Bourque assisted students at Dr. Daniel Bright School with a mural in one of its hall- ways and she helped the Camp Verde community paint a town mural on the side of a coffee shop.
A $2,500 grant from the Arizona Commission for the Arts, matched by the district, brought art to the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District.
“Because of the size of the mural, they’ve had the challenge of filling it in and they’ve come up with all sorts of ideas for it,” Bourque said. In addition to the river and the bridge, the mural features numerous tableaus on the theme of cooperation — one child pushing another on a swing, another teaching a friend to read, several together in a rock band. “The kids designed this. They came up with all the ideas that you see about cooperation.”
“We’re supposed to work together on some things we can do,” said 6th grader Jennifer Rodriguez. Rodriguez said that she was not particularly good at painting before working on the project but has enjoyed trying what she could. “I’m going to feel that I helped. It will be pretty when it’s finished because we worked hard on it.”
With the mural portrayed so prominently in the courtyard of the school, it will continue to be a symbol for the students long after the work is finished.
“Initially, it offers students the opportunity to practice their art skills in a unique capacity, as murals of this size aren’t created every day,” CCS Principal Matthew Schumacher wrote in an email. “Then, it creates a sense of ownership and respect for the campus because they see their contributions as valuable to our entire learning community, which can really amount to a lasting legacy. What I see on the face of students is that they recognize that this mural will be seen by all students and they take pride in that fact.”
“I learned to have patience and go with the flow,” Gael Vasquez, another 6th grader, said. “When it’s done, I’ll have worked hard on it.”
Bourque hopes to have the mural finished by Wednesday, April 17, with CCS teachers putting the finishing touches on the artwork as part of their weekly teacher meeting.
In addition to the many symbols of cooperation throughout the colorful image, the mural features one that is unique to CCS — a pack of wolves in front, representing the school’s mascot, the Lobos.
Schumacher sees the mural as a means of helping the newly rebranded school to find its own identity after it transitioned from Cottonwood Middle School this year.
“The entire mural is built around the idea of community and collaboration,” Schumacher wrote. “In our rebranding effort to define the Community School, as situated within the PACK, those ideals are well-represented through the art. Our family of Lobos is front-and- center to demonstrate our collective efficacy, while the landscape and puzzle pieces are an acknowledgment that we can’t bridge the valleys without a sense of togetherness.”
