Haines High School art student Wesley Dixon rolls primer onto the skatepark wall, prepping it for a mural. Classmate Griffin Culbeck paints in the background.
Armed with paint brushes, rollers and rolls of tape, Haines High School art students launched a project on Tuesday to invigorate the graffiti-laden Haines skatepark: they are designing, proposing and painting their own murals.
The project is the culmination of a community push to beautify the skatepark. Leading the way is art teacher Giselle Miller, who’s in her third year with the Haines school district. Miller said that ever since she arrived in town community members have asked her to devise a project to transform the skatepark, which has been overrun by spray-painted penises and other spur-of-the-moment sketches, like the words “yo mama fat” in big bright yellow letters on the skatepark’s metal wall. Miller is treating the project like a street art festival where small groups and individual students have creative oversight over their own sections of the skatepark without an overarching theme.
“What I really want is just to make sure it’s a place they can create in and feel like their art is represented and elevated,” Miller said. “I want the students to take ownership of the space, keeping it bright, clean and creative, and what better way than to put their artwork on display,” she wrote in an email to the CVN.
In addition to designing and painting, students will have to devise their own proposals, including cost estimates, that will be submitted to interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton and public works director Ed Coffland, Miller said. The borough is financing supplies.
Interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton said at an Aug. 24 borough assembly meeting that the borough had received complaints of vandalism at the skatepark and that “we’re really excited” about the mural project. “It’s really in its infancy now but it’s really taking off quickly,” she said.
A few of the design concepts percolating among students include abstract faces, buildings protruding from the back of a head and a tribute to the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan last week.
Art student Malia Jorgenson-Geise paints over graffiti on the backside of a skate ramp.
“I’m really excited,” said Matilda Rogers, an 11th-grade student, who’s working with three classmates to transform the half-pipe into a cascade of colorful faces. “This is my first time doing an independent mural.”
Rogers said she appreciates how the project captures both the proposal and painting aspects of creating murals.
Griffin Culbeck, who’s in 10th grade, said he’s working independently on a side profile of a face with buildings coming out of the back. “I skateboard quite a lot, so I’m excited for this space to be livened up and brighter and cleaner,” Culbeck said.
Miller plans for the murals to be completed by the end of September. The new artwork will be celebrated with an afterschool First Friday gathering at the skatepark on Oct. 1. Miller said there will be music, live painting and student artists. Skateboarding will be encouraged.
Miller asked that community members respect wet paint signs in the skatepark for the next month.