Collaborative Mural Project

By Tracie Dunn

PATHWAYS Collaborative Mural Project Current Pathways students, post-graduates, student mentors, teachers and tutors are all coming together to work on a mural that reflects the experiences shared in the CCHS Pathways Program. Learning, cooking, dancing, movie night, hydroponics, school store – these are just some of the inspirational sources for the mural. In the end, the mural will illustrate the positive, caring and lively culture that is signature to the Pathways Program’s community of learners and educators.

Collaborative Mural Project  with Tracie Dunn Art is a great vehicle for learning how to collaborate!  Working alongside teams of faculty and students, I am supporting groups in their efforts to create a collaborative art project, while also bringing positive, affirming visual culture to CCHS. During our high school careers, may we all (students and teachers alike) have the opportunity to experience and become fearless and joyful artists. Collaboration is frequently sighted as foundational to education (and work life) today. Simply defined as bringing people together to create something, collaboration is a process that requires specific skills that are far from simple to define or develop. Learning how to collaborate takes time, practice and guidance. Through a series of projects completed at CCHS, I hope to encourage positive interpersonal experiences and substantial learning opportunities through the process of making collaborative art.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

Daisy Patton

Patton’s color pallet is exuberant and her imagery is lush and vibrant. We felt these qualities are a good match for the energy of Pathways, and the culture we wish to cultivate in our school. Many students pass through this hallway at the beginning of the day, and it would be nice to “wake” people up with a burst of color and vitality. 

Deborah Roberts Each individual figure in Roberts’ pieces is a compilation of multiple people. We are hoping to borrow this style to show that individuals also part of a supportive community that comes together for the betterment of all participants.  to make learning both personalized and community or

Still I Rise at   MassMoCA 

https://massmoca.org/event/still-i-rise/

“You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise”

– Maya Angelou

Tim Okamura Okura’s urban portraits layer images and text to build rich backgrounds. We all enter the building with layers of personality, history, concerns and dreams. It’s nice to imagine that we can create a visual culture at CCHS that honors and celebrates this fact.

Tracie Dunn has been teaching studio arts at the high school level in Massachusetts' public schools since 2001. 

Her instructional practices encourage positive interpersonal experiences and substantial learning opportunities through the process of making art. She has designed arts opportunities for children and families living in New York City, taught in Virginia's Summer Residential Governor's School, and co-founded "Rivers and Revolutions" at Concord-Carlisle High School. In addition to teaching, Tracie has led visual arts programs and professional development workshops for area schools and at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. She continues to explore and improve her professional practices through  opportunities such as Art21’s Summer Institute in New York City. 

Tracie holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an M.A. from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.