CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Students from Norman Smith Elementary School and Big Brothers Big Sisters Clarksville undertook a huge project on Saturday, Nov. 14, painting the Crossland Avenue side of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System Central Services building with a giant mural.
The concept for this mural was developed as a part of a comprehensive Crossland Avenue Revitalization group project for Leadership Clarksville’s Class of 2019.
Local artist Olasubomi “Ola” Bashorun came up with the design and style of the mural, based on the work of Piet Mondrian.
“I chose this painting because it has bold lines, strong colors, and small and large shapes. Our youth have to be bold. They will have to be strong, and they must work together no matter their color, shape or size,” Bashorun said in a news release.
“It was awesome, our kids were so pumped. They worked so hard,” said Norman Smith Assistant Principal Tearza Baggett, who was out on Saturday with the students.
A total of seven students signed up to paint the mural. While Bashorun and his team painted the white background and bold black lines, the children filled in the spaces with color. They finished in just under an hour, moving as much more quickly than initially anticipated.
“I used yellow, I kind of just filled in where the other kids missed. Then I used the colors that were left,” said one of the student painters, 10-year-old Emory Baggett, who also happens to be Tearza’s daughter.
She added that it was “kinda strange” to be painting a school building, but fun nonetheless.
How they did it
“So we had this building, and we partnered with the artist. We wanted it to represent the Clarksville community and obviously children since this is a CMCSS building, and we wanted the kids in the area to be able to see something and be proud of it,” said Chris Buerck, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Clarksville.
Buerck secured the funding for the mural project, and collaborated with community members and Bashorun on design and feel.
“Leadership Clarksville always breaks into small groups, and each small group has a different task and project. One of the small groups from the Leadership Clarksville Class of 2019 was Crossland Avenue and what it could look like and what the community could do with it,” Buerck continued.
According to Buerck, the mural was part of a sprucing up the area needed to boost community pride.
The painting itself was divided into three phases. Phase one was covering the south wall of the CMCSS Central Services building in those bold black lines on a white background.
Phases two and three will add layers of images of children, and motivational phrases in the spaces.
Angela Peterson contributed to this reporting.
