Susan Rosano, an artist with Arts for Learning Connecticut who recently moved to Vermont, worked to prepare paints and one of what will be nine murals for Middle Gate Elementary School’s cafeteria during the evening of Tuesday, February 10.

Ms Rosano was there thanks to a $6,000 grant Middle Gate PTA President Rebekah Harriman-Stites  applied for through the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Ms Harriman-Stites also said $3,000 of the PTA’s money from fundraisers is also going to support the project. The PTA president said she came across the grant while working. She is the owner of the HK Consulting Group, a consulting firm.

The grant, Ms Harriman-Stites explained, was for communities, nonprofit groups, and PTAs to apply for help covering an art project. She said she pictured the blank walls of Middle Gate’s cafeteria, and decided, “Why not?”

February 10 was the first session of the school’s Community Mural Project. Ms Rosano will meet with students and family members over the course of multiple evenings to finish the planned nine murals. According to Ms Rosano and Ms Harriman-Stites, the murals will each reflect one aspect of the district’s Character Tree.

Each of the murals will be put on display in the school’s cafeteria. Seven of the murals will be 4 by 5 feet and two of the murals will be 10 by 10 feet.

As students and their family members stood around a table with what would be the first mural laid out before them, Ms Rosano explained she had already outlined a drawing and the words, “Be a friend.” The drawing showed people, tall and small, holding hands and smiling. The students, parents, and friends were all charged with painting in the mural.

Food from Franco’s Pizza & Pasta was provided during the evening,

Most of the students were quick to pick up a paint brush and start working on either painting in a person or to create designs within one of the letters on the mural.