Walking through the halls, students are greeted by colorful artworks created by their classmates. A magenta and teal pillar by the entrance, a twelve-by-eighteen-foot painting of a Japanese rock star, a school of fish, and everything in between. However, these murals aren’t just decoration. They’re part of a decade-long tradition at HPHS where AP Art students transform the walls into canvases.
According to art teacher Mr. Novotny, the mural program began around ten years ago. Every other year, AP art students can choose to propose a “mural or mini-mural” as part of their second-semester assignments. Some are large-scale and take up entire walls, while others are “the size of an artwork, but permanently [placed] on the wall,” said Mr. Novotny.
The mural approval process is involved, but it is always worth it. Students must create sketches and Photoshop them onto the spaces where they are going to be placed. That proposal goes to the building manager, then to the district-wide manager of facilities, then finally to the equity director and coordinator at the district office. This procedure is a measure to ensure that the murals are not obtrusive or misleading. For example, “you can’t paint an exit with an arrow pointing somewhere that’s not an exit,” Mr. Novotny explained. “As far as the equity coordinator, they check if it is acceptable to be put up in a public space and representative of the school.”
About half of the AP art students decide to submit a mural proposal, and roughly three-quarters of those follow through to the end of the process. This results in about five or six murals every other year. The projects vary in size and complexity. While some smaller works may only take a week, large-scale projects can take up to two months.
Beyond giving life and color to the halls, all of the murals serve to “make people feel at home, and some of them make people think,” Mr. Novotny mentioned. He pointed out one mural titled Connect by the C-hall stairwell. It is three paintings installed as a mural with two hands heat-mapped together, reaching towards each other. Its purpose is to make people think about their connections with others around them and invite students to be friendly with each other.
What began ten years ago as a classroom project has evolved into a defining tradition at HPHS. Every mural allows students to leave their legacy behind and add to the story of the school. Moving into the future, students will continue brightening the hallways with their murals and joining our community together through art.
