Black History event continues community collaboration on Winooski school murals

A mural located in Winooski's elementary school made in collaboration between students and Juniper Creative. Photo by Catherine Morrissey

Gus Williams had already designed dragon scales and pebbles for murals lining the hallways of John F. Kennedy School in Winooski. Last week, the fourth-grader moved on to leaf shapes. 

Gus came to a school-sponsored Black History & the Arts event on Feb. 15 to continue to contribute to an ongoing mural project that’s adding vivid color and elaborate imagery to Winooski schools’ walls. Professional artists from Juniper Creative Arts have worked with students since the beginning of the school year to involve them in the design and details of the community artwork.

The young students and their parents chattered in the elementary school cafeteria during the evening Black History event while Jennifer Herrera Condry, Juniper’s creative director, listed the materials they’d use that evening to make their leaf shapes: paintbrushes, water, paper towels and paints. The leaves themselves are made of polytab fabric, or parachute cloth, explained Will Kasso Condry, Herrera Condry’s partner and cofounder of their family artistic collective, which also includes their daughter, Alexa.

The students would paint the leaves to add to a large tree in the latest mural, which will adorn the main lobby. The students’ leaves will stay long after they leave Winooski school.

“Once it’s up, it’s up. It’s as permanent as the mural,” Kasso Condry said. The kids get to make art and see their individual contributions toward the greater whole. 

Murals like those at the schools give a community a sense of ownership and identity, Herrera Condry said. For a community that’s more racially diverse than any other in Vermont, the creative collaboration between the students and artists of color — Herrera Condry is Dominican and Kasso Condry is Black — brings everyone to the table to transform the stark white walls of their surroundings.

“This incredible facility was built for the community,” said Kate Grodin, co-principal of Winooski middle and high schools, who spearheaded the mural project with Juniper. “This is one way to make it ours.” 

Gus sits on the mural committee and said he came up with the idea of the bridge mural, which faces the dragon mural across the hallway near the school lobby. “It’s very nice,” the budding artist said of the work.

He “felt great to be involved,” said his mother, Kiersten Williams, who accompanied her son to the art event.

During the Black History event, Kasso Condry instructed the participants to first cover their leaf in a base coat, then pat the leaf down with a paper towel. To finish their leaves, they added details and colors with a clean brush. Most important, the artist advised, make each leaf “as funky and cool as you possibly can.”

Juniper Creative, based in Brandon, has worked with Winooski students of all ages since October to create what will ultimately be five murals that have meaning to them. At the school, the Condrys do more than give artistic guidance. They develop relationships with the students, sit and talk to them and make them feel heard, said Grodin, who observed some of those collaborative sessions.

Through that deep involvement, the mural ideas have evolved. For example, Herrera Condry said, the direction the students walked through the school convinced her to expand one mural into two different spots. Watching where the middle school and high school kids hang out, she decided each should have their own mural in their respective zones.

The content of the murals incorporates the young artists, too. A student stood as the model for the trunk of the tree where the leaves will dangle. In the draft of the design, the student holds an onion — for the Onion City — with roots that will grow into the branches. In a mural combining students’ interests in fantasy art and the natural world, a dragon in the Winooski River has five tails to represent the elements: fire, earth, air, water and ether, or spirit. The dragon’s more than 300 scales were created by students.

And the students work across age boundaries: Fifth- and third-graders help kindergarteners with their pieces.

“It was really fun,” said Zola Bronz, a second-grade student who attended the event and had contributed a dragon scale in art class at school. Zola’s mother, Meg Bronz, said the murals represent a “great way to bring the community together.”

Juniper has helped create more than 15 murals around the state with the same interactive method, encouraging participation from the community. “We love what we do,” Kasso Condry said, “and we love sharing it.”

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct information about the intended location of the tree mural, which will go in the main lobby.