Home Schools & Youth Black Hawk Middle School students launch CommUNITY project

Black Hawk Middle School students launch CommUNITY project

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Black Hawk Middle School students launch CommUNITY project
Black Hawk students and their families paint outdoor garden poles, which will be delivered to Northside elementary schools, where students will add their school colors and imagery. Photos by Hollis Rudiger

By Hollis Rudiger
Black Hawk Middle School

Jessica Jones, art teacher at Black Hawk Middle School, launched an exciting project this

Black Hawk students and their families paint outdoor garden poles, which will be delivered to Northside elementary schools, where students will add their school colors and imagery. Photos by Hollis Rudiger

fall, which is designed to help our students connect with all Northside schools and neighborhood centers. This collaborative art project will highlight the many cultures represented in our community and focus upon the idea that our strength is our diversity and our self-expression is fearless and beautiful.

Focusing on the Pacific Northwest Indian traditions of the symbolic totem pole, students are demonstrating their commitment to one another through the creation of contemporary totems that connect us. The project correlates with Black Hawk’s C.A.R.E.S curriculum, which is an arts integrative approach to social-emotional learning. This project also supports Black Hawk’s mission of the Growing Together Initiative with our fellow Northside elementary schools.

By creating this collaborative installation, this project will cultivate community relationships and will encourage awareness and appreciation of our environment. It also promotes connection to each other and instills a love of learning in young and old alike.

Black Hawk students and their families paint outdoor garden poles, which will be delivered to Northside elementary schools, where students will add their school colors and imagery. Photos by Hollis Rudiger

During MSCR/CLC programming and at our CommUNITY nights at Black Hawk, middle schoolers and their families have begun by priming and painting 13 large outdoor garden poles. They will then be delivered to Lindbergh, Gompers, Lake View and Mendota, where elementary students will add their school colors and imagery that represents various responses to the question, “What is our community? How does our community help us succeed?” It will represent a visual tie to each other’s school/educational communities that support learning and growth together.

Upon completion, one pole from each school will stay on display at Black Hawk and one pole will be gifted to each elementary school.

Our next CommUNITY night will be Wednesday, Feb. 15, 5‒7 pm, at Black Hawk Middle School. Won’t you join us in completing our project?