LANESBOROUGH — Students at Lanesborough Elementary School have been enlisted to combat a problem plaguing the Berkshire Mall Road overpass at Partridge Road: graffiti.
In a yearlong project, 28 sixth-graders thought carefully about their happiest memories in town — and then put them on paper in colored pencil. They’ve since measured and cut mat boards to frame their artworks that are being painted on the overpass walls in latex high-gloss exterior paint, which is easier to clean in case more graffiti shows up. First, the Department of Public Works painted over the graffiti in a dark gray.
Magnus Plumb and Wrex Wojtkowski, both 12, work on a mural they will give to their school as a class gift. A wall-sized version is being painted on the Berkshire Mall Road overpass at Partridge Road.
The mural was along the way to completion by Tuesday, having been started last week by artists Stephanie Quetti and Kristen Tool, who came up with the concept and won two grants to help pay for supplies and labor to undertake it.
The original artworks will be exhibited in a one-day art show at the school on Monday. Accompanying their works will be artists’ statements they wrote about their pieces. This summer, the students’ works will be displayed in businesses and town buildings — and long after that, the mural will remain.
Students were working on a diminutive copy of the mural that will be their class gift to the school on Tuesday as well.
While Wrex Wojtkowski, 12, began painting a depiction of his father, brother and himself at the golf course, Magnus Plumb, 12, painted a woman in a farm field.
Daisy Caron, 12, depicted the interior of the Berkshire Mall in her drawing. She remembered particularly enjoying the bounce house, the smoothie shop, the Spirit Halloween store, and the movies.
Daisy Caron, 12, shows her colored pencil drawing of the Berkshire Mall. The drawing will be part of a mural to be painted on the Berkshire Mall Road overpass at Partridge Road.
Jackson Gladu, 12, painted the Veterans War Memorial Tower on Mount Greylock, a place he’s enjoyed going to for years.
Lanesborough Elementary School art teacher David Solak said he asked students to depict the memories rather than just the landmarks themselves.
Tool took photos of the underpass, which Solak pulled up on the computer to show students. The class discussed the option of having everyone contribute to a single overarching design or having students contribute their own to a patchwork design — with the patchwork concept winning. That allowed for a high degree of independence and creativity among the students, Solak said, and a bit of a balancing act for him in terms of giving direction.
The completed section of the mural under the Berkshire Mall Road overpass on Partridge Road was created by Lanesborough Elementary School students and painted by an artist and volunteers.
“It’s just a really great opportunity to actually get their artwork out into the community and hopefully make an impact on the community, which is really difficult to do nowadays,” Solak said. “With kids, sometimes they feel like they don’t have the power to do that.”
Solak said he was surprised by the depth of good feeling the students have for their memories of Lanesborough.
“We were working a lot with shading this year,” he said. Students used a high-end donated set of colored pencils “to create those gradients and those effects that the kids were looking to step their artwork up to the next level.”
Solak said the whole experience of cutting the mat boards and developing the artists’ statements gave the students “a glimpse of what it’s actually like for a modern artist.”
Tool and Quetti both were impressed that so many students chose landscapes, farms and nature.
How does one paint a mural?
“You make sure the ladder’s safe. And you make sure your paint-mixing gear is ready. And be cautious and be diligent,” Quetti said.
Stephanie Quetti paints a section of a mural, designed by Lanesborough students, on the Berkshire Mall Road overpass on Partridge Road.
Quetti said “seeing Lanesborough come to life in the eyes of young people” made the process enjoyable.
She enjoyed seeing the details the students included, people in the background, fish in the water and noted the one-point perspective in one drawing.
Tool applied for grants through the Mass Cultural Council of $1,931 and a $1,000 from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Lanesborough Initiative for Excellence. She hoped the project would allow the students to collaborate after years of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For a couple of those years, they weren’t even able to be in a classroom together,” she said.
She won both grants and was able to buy art supplies both for the mural and for the elementary school as a result. She spent about $1,000 on supplies, the balance on the artist’s labor.
Kristin Tool paints a section of a mural, designed by Lanesborough students, which is going up on Berkshire Mall Road overpass at Partridge Road.
Principal Nolan Pratt said the mural project has been a great way for the school to touch the community.
“One thing we have is a lot of community to support in Lanesborough,” Pratt said. “And it’s our way to give back to the community, something when they drive by they can see the good work that our school’s doing.”
Finley Beguin, 12, did a drawing of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, where he runs, skateboards and bikes. His was in a graphite gray, matching his work in pencil.
It was one of the first to take final form under the bridge, and he’s seen it.
“I liked it,” he said, adding he approves of the final translation of his original work.
“It’s been really cool,” he said of the entire project. “We’ve been doing it the whole school year. It’s been like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have something in Lanesborough that you’ve done.”
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