Eighth Grade Students Paint Mural Celebrating Social Justice
A visit to San Francisco’s famed murals inspires student design
Ms. Bedingfield’s eighth grade elective students explored social justice issues depicted in murals during a field trip to San Francisco’s Mission District in October.
San Francisco muralist and historian Patricia Rose of Precita Eyes Muralists led the 16 students on a walking tour of Balmy Alley. The block is known for having San Francisco’s most concentrated collection of public murals.
Rose educated the class on Latino social and political struggles depicted in the area’s street art. The alley undergoes constant change, she said, with iconic murals exhibited alongside the new. Translating some of the Spanish text helped students gain a deeper understanding of the themes, said Bedingfield.
Continuing on to Precita Park to the center’s painting studio, the class worked on an “instant mural,” inspired by Sacred Heart’s Goal III: a social awareness which impels to action. The design, “Hanging in the Balance,” incorporates social justice themes of gender equality, environmental protection, and freedom.
Starting from sketches representing love, unity, and equality, as well as environmental concerns, overcoming hate, racism and misunderstanding, students worked together to create a design. The finished product took five hours to create and “depicts a scale with a woman standing proud, showing resistance, and a man taking a knee to display solidarity and protest,” Bedingfield said.
“[The figures] hang in a precarious balance, representing feminine and masculine energies,” Bedingfield said. “A rainbow background represents light split from a prism, expressing hope, freedom, and joy.”
“[The figures] hang in a precarious balance, representing feminine and masculine energies,” Bedingfield said. “A rainbow background represents light split from a prism, expressing hope, freedom, and joy.”
Last year, the student mural, “March to a Brighter Future,” was picked up by Sofie.org and is still the banner for the network site. It’s also the banner on the Precita Eyes Muralists’ “instant murals” page.
Sacred Heart Schools Atherton
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12
