ROCHESTER, Minn.-St. Pius X School has a new piece of art welcoming students to the building.
Starting two years ago, the school worked with local artist Greg Wimmer on creating a mural for the entrance to the school. The inspiration to have the mural and its design came from an interaction the principal had with a student.
St. Pius X School principal Dave Jenson says, “I had a 3rd grade student that is currently in 5th grade. She had an assignment in class to do a free drawing when there were some lines kind of as a prompt and she chose to draw a picture of Mary, Jesus’s mother.”
He says the student gave him the drawing, giving inspiration for the murals design. But that wasn’t the first time Jenson saw the need for the school to be recognizable.
Jenson says, “I really had this moment after I became principal we had a squad car parked in our parking lot and I asked him you know, if he needed anything, if there’s anything we should be aware of at the school and he’s like ‘I didn’t realize this was a school’.”
The goal is for the mural to help the school be identified in the community. Muralist Greg Wimmer says he spent time doing research and sketching out the design before painting. He started painting the mural in August and since he began, students were interested.
Wimmer says, “It’s always fun to talk to kids I think and to see what they think and they’re usually going by quite quickly but there was one girl who did talk to me intensively because she was just interested and she liked to watch me paint.”
At the beginning of the school day, students had a chance to see the mural and participate in a blessing of the new art piece.
Jenson says, “It’s special for them to be able to see a work of art that’s not just a pretty picture, it’s something that shares our faith and that they can have that sense of peace and calm that Mary is there to pray for us.”
The hope is the mural will be there for years to come.
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