As muralist Tracy Van Duinen worked with students June 22 on a mosaic mural project at Julian Middle School, he said the middle schoolers seemed to relish the importance of their contribution to the art installation.
“You are significantly changing the look of the school. You are putting your mark on it. They like that,” Van Duinen said.
It’s the second year Van Duinen, an Oak Park and River Forest High School visual arts teacher, has partnered with the Oak Park Education Foundation for a BASE Camp mosaic mural project. Last summer, a similar mural was installed at Brooks Middle School, honoring that school’s namesake, poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
This year, close to 45 middle school students took part in the two-week camp at Julian, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave., where they learned about and worked with paints, sculpture, photo transfer, tiles, artist techniques and more.
“We’re trying to expose them to not only this process, but a lot of different mediums,” Van Duinen said.
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Highly visible from the corner of Ridgeland Avenue and Washington Boulevard as it wraps around the northwest corner of the building, the mural — molecular in structure — honoring pioneering black chemist Julian will be about two and a half stories high, with multiple circles 5 feet in diameter.
It pairs the words “learn,” “achieve” and “persist” with sepia-toned photos of Julian in cap and gown, at work in a laboratory and his Oak Park home, which was firebombed twice.
The mural also pays homage to Julian’s love of tulips and his work with soybeans in the production of cortisone. Tiles purchased by community members also are incorporated; Van Duinen noted more were purchased for this mural than the one at Brooks.
Tracy Dell’Angela Barber, executive director of the Oak Park Education Foundation, said planning for the Julian mural began almost as soon as the Brooks mural was completed last summer. The design came together by late fall.
“We really wanted to bring that same kind of project and tribute to the other middle school,” Barber said. The camp experience gives children the opportunity to “be able to say to themselves, ‘I played a part in that.’ ”
During community meetings seeking input, Van Duinen said it was clear residents wanted the mural to express equity and inclusivity.
“The hands that are on this mural go everywhere from kids at this school to community members,” Van Duinen said.
Modifications were made along the way, and portions of the mosaic were put together on tables before being affixed to the exterior of the building. Van Duinen shared the mapping system for piecing sections together on the wall, explaining the puzzle-like process.
He praised the BASE camps, mentioning that the experience exploring a medium in that way at a young age provides a head-start opportunity.
“It does show when they get into high school,” Van Duinen added. “We really stress at the beginning of this, it’s not about them finishing, it’s about them learning.”
Edd Magierski, an art teacher at Julian Middle School and camp facilitator, said he’s always impressed by the creative energy the students bring. He and fellow Julian art teacher Phillip Swistowicz added that they were learning about mosaic murals right along with students.
“We give them a fairly high-level idea, and they pull it off with their creativity and skills,” Magierski said of students.
Marigold Buckner, 11, and Sela Snyder, 12, also took part in the mosaic mural camp at Brooks last year. Snyder mentioned they passed Julian’s Oak Park home while biking recently, and they remarked on his successes in the face of adversity.
Snyder said she hopes it’s apparent that many people were involved in the creation of the mural.
“We like how it’s just there and it’s never going to be removed,” Snyder said of the mural. “We don’t usually work with something on the building.”
“It could be a tourist attraction!” Buckner added earnestly.
Although the camp has ended, work on the mural continues, Van Duinen said. Barber said she expects they’ll do a public unveiling of the mural toward the end of summer, once it’s completed.
For more information, visit www.opef.org/mosaic-mural.
