Bradford students have downtown beautification down to an art.
On Thursday afternoon, local politicians and town staff joined a group of Bradford District High School (BDHS) students and their art teachers for the official unveiling of a new set of murals created by the students and mounted on the outside of Jennings School Of Karate at 16 John St. W.
Mayor James Leduc welcomed people to the unveiling and thanked everyone involved for their hard work.
“It’s been a tremendous undertaking, a year-long collaboration to bring beautiful works of art to our downtown core ... Thank you for sharing your talent with us and bringing these incredible designs to life and brightening our downtown core. I hope you take great pride in knowing that you have contributed to your town in such a meaningful way,” he said.
Jim Jennings, who started teaching karate in Bradford in 1994 and has owned the building since 2005, expressed his thanks and appreciation to everyone who came together and helped make the project a reality.
“My wife Trish and I would like to express that we feel honoured and blessed that the walls of our karate school were selected for this pilot project. We are just overwhelmed with how beautiful it is,” he said.
To complete all eight murals, about 400 students helped paint individual sections over the course of the 2022-2023 school year.
Aya Shalan, was in Grade 9 while working on project, and even though she only had one part, it was a fun and rewarding experience for her.
“It was a little hard, because I didn’t paint much before this, but I feel like I did really good, and they all look amazing. It’s really special. I feel like I contributed something to the community,” she said.
Shalan doesn’t expect to be taking art when she returns to school for Grade 10 in September, but she is looking forward to expanding her artistic skills in the craft class.
“Hopefully I can do something like this again because it was really fun,” she said.
Victoria Myrow was in Grade 11 while working on the project, which was a new experience for her.
“It was definitely hard work, but it was fun, because I had never been part of something like that before,” she said.
As part of an extra credit project, she also created the initial sketch for one of the murals, and she feels good knowing that her work helped form the base of such a public project.
“I never thought something that I would contribute to would be on a wall anywhere, especially in a downtown. I’m really proud of my work. If anyone goes into Bradford, I can say ‘I painted a mural that’s there,’ so that’s fun,” she said.
Myrow plans to take art again when she goes back to school for Grade 12 in September, and if there is another mural project, she hopes to have another opportunity to contribute.
“I’m planning on going to an art university, so of course, I’ll be working on other big projects my whole life as a student,” she said.
BDHS art teacher, Ted Majewski said students from Grade 9 through Grade 12 began working on the murals in late September and over the school year each of the three art classes worked on two murals, while the art club worked on another two with each mural taking about one month to complete.
“All students who were taking art classes were participating and it was part of their assignments. They were marked for their participation, their contribution and their co-operative spirit. It was definitely a collective work,” he said, adding the students received very positive evaluations.
While having so many students working on such a large-scale project may sound overwhelming, Majewski explained each image was divided into 48 smaller sections on which students could work from photo reference, and once all sections were complete, the individual styles were merged together to unify each image.
Those photo references came from pictures Majewski took on the way to school, but the paintings aren’t just recreations of the photos.
“It is more like a combination of different locations into one and creating a piece that is a reflection of different inspirational techniques,” he said, adding that the original concept was inspired by the Group of Seven, but each mural evolved to take on its own style.
Majewski hopes that in future the school’s students can work on even larger projects.
“We can create any type of work with the highest standards. Even if you have no artistic background, with the proper guidance and proper techniques, you can accomplish incredible results,” he said, adding that he hopes this project will inspire other students to engage in art as well.
Erica Russell has been teaching at BDHS for 26 years and teaching art for most of that time, but said the school had never tried something of this scale before.
The project was made possible through a combination of Majewski’s experience in graphic design and other areas, Russell’s experience in acrylics in addition to funding from the town.
“We’re not funded well. It worked out we got $6.50 per kid in our program last year, so we have to get creative,” she said expressing her thanks that the city had the budget for the program.
To make best use of that funding, Russell said the number of paint colours was limited to just red, yellow, blue, black and white, which also helped teach the students about colour theory.
“The mural has a lot of a certain green and we’d mix enough of that green to start as a base, but they’d alter it, adding more yellow and blue to get the right colour and then neutralizing with red. It’s pretty impressive that they took that limited pallet and this is what you get,” she said.
While the initial criteria was for scenes that would represent the area as “something their grandmother would like,” Russell thinks the students’ efforts expanded the murals into something the whole town can enjoy.
“I’m just so proud of them. They look awesome and this is something they are going to be able to come by 10, 20 years from now hopefully and say ‘I did this,’ ” she said.
Michael Kemp, marketing co-ordinator for the town’s office of economic development, explained the project started when a group teachers approached the former Downtown Revitalization Committee (which was rolled into other committees for this term) and recommended providing artwork to beautify the downtown.
After council approved the project as a pilot project, $10,000 was allocated as part of the budget in 2022, before the office of economic development was tasked with overseeing things.
Then in 2023, council expanded the funding to $30,000 total with each facade being eligible for $10,000 in funding, meaning a building like Jennings School of Karate could qualify for as much as $20,000 as murals adorn walls on both sides of the building.
Kemp explained the total cost the eight murals is still being determined, but he expects the investment to benefit the town for years, as the canvas panels have been treated with a protective coating to prevent weathering and guard against UV.
“When you put artwork in the heart of your downtown, it’s something that people talk about, that they get excited about. It highlights Jennings School of Karate, it highlights our downtown and whatever we can do to draw visitors downtown, it’s a good thing — those are people who spend time here; those are people who spend money here,” he said.
Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott chaired the former Downtown Revitalization Committee last term, and while he was out of town for work, he still shared his excitement for the project via email.
"This mural project is an amazing way to do so many beneficial things at once. Downtown revitalization. Public art. Great learning opportunities for students. Support for businesses. A legacy for all involved. I am thrilled to see the mural unveiled and the testament it represents of collaboration between students, teachers, businesses and our town to create such beautiful art,” he said.
