If you want to get a colorful perspective about what kids think is special about their town, check out the new mural on the wall of the long corridor at Kids’ Club in Town Center.
The “Welcome to Bedford” statement is the result of Mural Making Madness, a Recreation Department program directed by Sarah Scoville that unfolded every morning last week.
Nikki Taylor, Recreation Program Coordinator, noted that Scoville teaches after-school arts for the Recreation Department during the school year. “Every year we try to come up with a summer program. In the spring she did a mural on canvas with Lane students, and we decided to do this bigger one” for children in grades 2-5.
Taylor said Scoville met with Kids’ Club Director Dan Brosgol to identify the best space for the project. They needed no introduction – both are members of the Bedford School Committee.
“Since there were six children participating, I thought we could paint a ‘postcard mural’ for Bedford,” Scoville described. “Each child had a letter to design and paint, and I painted one too.”
“We started the week off by brainstorming ideas of what Bedford meant to them,” she continued. “One girl was interested in the Bedford Flag — we immediately walked right over to the library and checked out the real one.” Other themes integrated into the letters included the environment, sports, and ice cream.
“On Tuesday we painted the blue background behind the letters and practiced painting their ideas on a smaller scale,” Scoville related. “For the rest of the week, we worked on their letters. All the children were enthusiastic and engaged in the entire process. They took breaks and played on the playground.”
“I finished up the mural with the ‘welcome to’ and white borders around each letter to make them look consistent,” Scoville said. “On Friday at pick up, we had a grand reveal!”
“Once some were done painting, they made a set of wings as another collaborative project that was used for a photo op backdrop,” she added.
Scoville has been a leading advocate for public art in the community. Taylor noted that she will be teaching a mural experience at Lane School as part of the Recreation Department’s fall programming. Registration opens on Monday.
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
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What a great project! It was so interesting to see the different ideas about what makes Bedford Bedford. (I personally liked the “B”!) I would love to see this kind of a project carried out on a larger scale as a piece of public art with input from across our town.