When I was a little girl my mom took me and my two sisters to a “Chalk-In” in Watts, California. It was summer and we got to draw pictures in chalk on the street with the other kids. There were many different ethnic backgrounds represented. We danced to the music, drew and ate all different kinds of food until it was almost dark. A few days later we heard about the Watts Riots. I was worried for my new friends. I had made a connection; not because I was told to be tolerant and accepting, but because I had met new kids and we had created something together.

I feel that just talking about acceptance and diversity isn’t enough. If we can get children from diverse backgrounds together for a common goal, such as creating a work of art, they can start to get to know one another. The total outcome of the mural is based on cooperation and the collaborative effort is what makes it so beautiful.

For each of these projects you will need paint (outdoor latex works great), brushes and supplies. If you can’t raise enough funds, try going to the local hardware store to ask for a donation. Type up a proposal with everything you will need and the reason you will be doing the painting.

Most stores get asked for donations often so be prepared with the best letter possible. Make it shine above all the others. They may only be able to give a certain amount per month. If they have given for that month already, be first for the following month. Be persistent, but polite. Let them know that you will give them credit by writing their name next to the mural for all time and everyone to see. Great advertising and good local public relations. Let them know how many people will see it on a daily basis. You can also contact the local paper or t.v. station. We got the local news to come out and do the morning show weather reports, live from the school where the Xanadu mural was hanging. We also had local t.v. news coverage of the “Imagine Peace” project.

GENERAL SUPPLY LIST
(yours will vary depending on your mural needs)

Paint:

Black
White
Red
Blue
Yellow
Orange
Purple
Green
Brown
If you’re going to be painting people, make sure to mix up lot’s of different colors for skin tone (from light pink to almost black) before the kids are ready to paint.

Supplies:

Brushes
Paint rollers
Pencils
Paper
Drop Cloths
Paper towels
Plastic trash bags
Paper plates (for palettes)
Several big buckets for clean up
Masking tape
Newspaper

Optional:

Music
Food

PAINTING FOR PEACE
We did the “Imagine Peace” project at the Unity, Church of Today, in San Diego, CA, just after the
events of September 11th. I had been wondering how to help my daughter understand what had happened; something I couldn’t really even understand myself. I wanted her to know she could talk to me about it but she didn’t want to talk. I figured I had to turn it around.

Instead of focusing on the problem, the fear and the terror, I had an opportunity to help her focus on peace. Instead of just talking about acceptance and diversity, we couldcreate a situation where we could meet children and parents of different faiths. Another mother (Shelley Rahim) and I put the project together.

We invited people of all different faiths (Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, Unity, Unitarian, Christian, Baha’i, Religious Science, Sikh, Zirastrian, and others) to join together to paint their image of what peace looked like to them. We painted 10 canvases and everyone worked together to create the art. After we all finished and everyone wrote there name, faith and words of peace around the edge, each faith took a mural back to hang at their house of worship.

The day went very well and all the children and adults had a great time. Looking back, however, we would have planned a meeting after all the painting was done so the children could get together and talk a bit more. It took about 5 hours for everyone to complete the painting and several more hours for Shelley and I to do touch up. Touch up of spills and cleaning up edges made the murals really shine.

XANADU
Xanadu came out of the book of the same name by Maya Ajmera and Olateju Omolodun with story by Dr. John Hope Franklin. I had seen the book with all the wonderful ideas and art work and I knew I wanted my daughter’s class to give it a try. We ended up working with the whole 3rd grade class (about 130 students in all). There was no guide on how to do it at the time but they now have a wonderful, step-by-step book that explains just how to put it all together. You can find it at http://www.globalfundforchildren.org.

The kids got to come up with their idea of a perfect world, in other words, Xanadu. Our kids decided they wanted people of all races to get along. They would speak all different languages, but they would be able to understand one another. They had people of all colors living side-by-side. They created flying chairs for blind people and people in wheelchairs so they could go anywhere they wanted just by speaking into the controls. They also liked the idea of having animals, trees and flowers all over.

The mural hung in the school auditorium. On the first night the kids had a bake sale and charged parents $1.00 each to see it. They raised $200.00 that they decided (all on their own) to send to help find a cure for my daughter’s skin disease, vitiligo. If you do this project, your school could have an opening night and raise money for a local charity.

Later the mural was put up at the San Diego Airport and then at The San Diego Children’s Hospital. It will now go to a nursing home.

The Xanadu mural was not painted. We used cut paper for this one. It was then laminated and grommits were put at the corners for easy transport and instalation. It took 6 hours over a 6 day period to cut out the pieces and one school day for the students to glue all the pieces down.

FROM BIRTH TO DEATH
This mural was created to show how we all do so much of the same kinds of things. This school has about 90% Hispanic students so it depicts a Hispanic view of these activities. If we can share more information about what we all have in common, I think it will help us understand one another.

We started with “The Day You Were Born”, then “Vacations”, “First Day of School”, “Birthdays”, “Weddings”, and ends with “Day of The Dead". 400 students helped to paint the mural.It took 5 full days to complete.

The mural is a good jumping off point to ask about other peoples ceremonies and traditions. We do all of these different things, but how do our families do things differently? How are they the same? How do we celebrate birthdays? Consider the other important events in our lives and compare them with other religions or nationalities.

UNDERSEA MURAL
There are many different ways to bring children together. The subject of the mural doesn’t always have to be peace and acceptance. The undersea mural was painted by 130, 5th grade students. Each student painted one sea creature. This is a pretty simple project. It took one week of school hours.