“I think it’s like every child’s dream to paint on a wall,” says Adelle Wampler ‘24. Livia Smollen ‘24 explains, “Deborah came up to me and was like, ‘Oh do you want to go paint a mural in Friends Child Care?’ and that was where my brain went. Paint on a wall with small children.”
Recently, Portfolio students Adi Perelman ‘24, Adelle Wampler, and Livia Smollen have been hard at work designing and creating a mural in the basement of Friends Child Care Center located in Friends Center.
When the Center was originally opened the people there immediately saw the potential to add a mural along their long blank wall, hoping to achieve a more welcoming image as you walk in. Joann Schock, Assistant Director of Friends Child Care Center, explains, “Several artists from various studios and organizations submitted proposals that really didn’t capture the feeling that we wanted to portray. It wasn’t until we had students from FSS come over for their volunteer work that the idea came about during a conversation… there might be an opportunity between Friends Select and Friends Child Care Center to collaborate. It just made perfect sense.”
The whole process started near the end of the summer when Matt Rosen, Chief Financial Officer, first approached Deborah Caiola, Visual Arts Department Chair, with the idea of creating a mural. Deborah immediately loved the idea and wanted to get some of her senior portfolio students to take on the project. “In the years pre-pandemic, service had been part of the Portfolio class, and I thought the mural would be a great opportunity for advanced students to do service by using their art skills to give back to the community,” Deborah explains. The students were very excited to take on this project. According to students, much of Deborah’s portfolio class is creating art portfolios to submit to colleges, leaving the majority of the actual art making in their junior year. Taking on this project was a welcomed change for the students.
In the beginning of the brainstorming process, Adelle, Adi, and Livia met with the kids at Friends Center and asked them to draw anything that made them happy. “What I took away was the conversations I had with the kids rather than the drawings. We came back and we had like 30 sheets of scribbles and I was like ‘Okay, none of this can actually be used in the mural,’ but there are themes like ‘celebration’, so we included balloons,” said Livia.
Coming up with a final design was a bit of a challenge for the artists. “I think it took us maybe close to 2 months to actually finalize a design because the Child Care Center had to approve it, and then the actual Friends Center had to approve it,” said Adelle. “And every time they would give us feedback and we would have to change a bit and send it back. And that went back and forth for a while until we found something that everybody was happy with.”
Three different artists collaborating with varying art styles was also a slight challenge. But the difficulty was ultimately short-lasting. Adi says, “It was definitely a learning opportunity and luckily the 3 of us are really close and really want to value each other’s ideas but it definitely took a while for all 3 of us to get on something.”
The main challenge they encountered was creating an end to the design that only takes up a small portion of the wall that has no natural breaks while also leaving room for future students to add on. Originally they had planned to have large red curtains on the border of the mural but ultimately scrapped the idea in fear it would’ve been too awkward to build off of. “We wanted something that could fluidly go into somebody else’s idea,” explains Adi.
Once they came up with the final design and got it approved, the actual art process moved quickly; all 3 students went in during their art classes and any other free time they had. Adi said they received a lot of praise from parents, kids, and employees during the process, which was their goal; to make the mural fun for everyone who sees it. “We want it to be accessible to people of all sizes because it is a Child Care Center, so if you’re a tiny 2-year-old there’s something exciting on your level, but then if you’re also a little older there’s something exciting on the top. It’s just playful, with lots of bright colors,” Adelle said.
The final mural is expected to be done by the end of January and Adelle, Adi, and Livia have nothing but kind words to say about their entire experience. Adi says, “It’s been so much fun, and it’s so fun to be over there. Everyone is so kind and it’s so fun to interact with all the children and we’ve just had the loveliest interactions.”
