This past year, the Allen Park art department discovered the public works of street artist Kelsey Montague, and her world- renowned wings came here to Michigan!  In November, she completed the one of her infamous #whatliftsyou murals on Woodward Ave (images attached). Like many of her projects before, the mural incorporates small icons or symbols that are representative of the surrounding place and community.  For example, in the Detroit mural, you can find the Belle Isle conservatory, the facade of Eastern Market, a coney dog, a record player, to name a few. If you haven’t had chance to check out her work downtown, its work the trip!

As art teachers, we immediately felt inspired and began teaching our students about this contemporary artist.  Elementary and high school students were introduced to her style and will be working on various projects inspired by this type of interactive art.  We are going to create a public work in this same style that encompasses the important values and aspects of this city, and will be using our students inspirations to drive the design.

Additionally, Montague states on her website that she believes “art should not be separated from the human experience. Instead, the human experience should have a hand in creating art itself.”  With that in mind, reflecting back on the past year, the losses that this district and community have felt has been exponential.  We feel that honoring those we have lost is an integral component of the design of this mural. We are inviting any staff member that would like to contribute the initials of someone they’ve lost, to send those initials to high school art teacher, Jelane Richardson (richardson@appublicschools.com)  by February 14th.

All initials will be woven into the design of the mural and acknowledged at the site.  Once the project is complete, information on the opening ceremony will be shared with everyone and the installation will remain in our school community for the remainder of the year.

Artfully,