A New, Vibrant Mural Shares Student Art with Community

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Photo courtesy of Artists Working in Education

This large banner features a mural designed by students at Doerfler Elementary School as part of Artists Working in Education’s (AWE) Artist-in-Residence program.

In these dark times, communities often seek a sign of hope and Mayfair Mall provides exactly this as they unveil a large banner featuring a student-designed mural. As a show of support for the community and public art, Mayfair Mall displays artwork that was created by students at Doerfler Elementary School as part of Artists Working in Education’s (AWE) Artist-in-Residence program.

The artwork was scheduled to be shown publicly at the school but could not due to the pandemic. Despite this, the banner has been placed outside Mayfair Mall on the corner of Highway 100 and North Ave. The banner will eventually be relocated to the Mayfair Mall Food Court sometime later this summer.

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Photo courtesy of Artists Working in Education

Off the Cuff asked AWE’s Executive Director Lashawndra Vernon a few questions about the organization and this project.

What does it mean to AWE to take part in a mural that is displayed on Highway 100 and will eventually be featured in Mayfair Mall?

When we were approached about collaborating with Mayfair we were definitely excited. This is a chance for us to display the work we have been doing for 20-plus years right here in Milwaukee. Our hope is for other businesses to recognize the impact of the arts in our city and find ways to support our work and cultivate creative communities.

Why is it important to provide youth in Milwaukee with a creative outlet?

For this one we really can go back to our mission, “…art enhances human potential.” As an organization, we place an incredibly high value on making the arts accessible and adaptable. We believe that the arts have a vast influence on the experience of Milwaukee’s youth and families.

What was the process in creating the mural and getting a business as large as Mayfair to display it?

AWE’s Artist-in-Residence is a program that provides youth with opportunities to engage in the decision-making processes about land use, public space, and neighborhood revitalization through the design and creation of public art within their neighborhoods. The collaborative public art projects align youth-driven research, planning, and design with broader community goals to enhance neighborhood infrastructure, contribute to neighborhood beautification, activate underutilized public spaces, or respond to a pertinent community issue. Public art has the ability to bring the arts into people’s everyday lives, brighten blighted blocks, and inspire a new vision of what is possible when we think creatively. These factors demonstrate the ability of the arts to shift perceptions, create identity, and inspire us all.

AWE’s Artist in Residence program has had the privilege of partnering with Doerfler Elementary School over the past seven years providing arts enrichment for their wonderful students, working on collaborative art projects, and completing multiple murals in the Layton Boulevard West neighborhoods and their school. Local artists Kristelle Ulrich, Ken Brown and Katharyne Darm have been collaborating with students to design a new mural over the past few months. The mural was created after students were guided through several vision workshops. These artists led workshops and walked students through discussions on various art mediums, techniques and principals like texture and composition.

From these weekly workshops, the students created nature designs that explored the anatomy of bugs and plant life, digitally illustrated flowers, and made faux tree bark out of paper. Students were also given sketchbooks to free draw and express themselves every week while they ate healthy fruits you would find on a tree of life. The vision workshops ensure that the AWE artists are the curators of students’ creative thoughts and work.

Once we are able to gather the mural [it] will be installed on the school’s front doors. This entry door mural is hopefully the first of many that AWE will be able to complete for a Milwaukee based school. Many students around the city are greeted everyday by plain front doors and far too often, invasive security measures prior to entry. We hope that these entry door murals will brighten the day for students and school staff, displaying the power of art as a symbol of hope and well-being.

Mayfair really took the lead in securing the work from us. They had a great team that saw the importance of supporting the community during this time and felt that art created by children in our community was a great symbol of that support. After the work was digitally created by our artist the process for printing and final tweaks was pretty easy. A bit more work was required to tweak the message for visibility due to the scale and to ensure minimal distraction for such a busy intersection. Between Mayfair and AWE we also had access to great printers that ensured the quality of the mural would be represented upon printing.

How has this organization affected your life and for what reason were you drawn to work for AWE?

While we are only a staff of five, this answer will be a bit different for everyone. I can safely say that all of us feel deeply committed to our mission; to provide youth in Milwaukee with arts and enrichment programs that advance learning, enhance human potential and cultivate community. Everyone who works for us has a calling to do this work, a responsibility that is always met with a passion for creativity.