Art Wall

We had our Martin Luther King Jr. service day this past Monday and it was a huge success. The AmeriCorps at Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte led 150 volunteers in building an outdoor classroom, cleaning the campus and renovating facilities for Turning Point Academy. This is a local school in Charlotte for children with behavioral problems. This included painting bleachers in the old gymnasium in the school and picking up debris and leaves around the campus. As a part of the outdoor classroom, we built a plant trellis, a compost bin, several garden planters and an art wall. I had the pleasure of leading the design and construction of the art wall.

When we were in the planning stages of this outdoor classroom, I immediately thought about building an art wall. I envisioned a wall where students could paint murals and express their creativity. I felt that the kids would enjoy it. We met with several faculty members at the school who expressed positive interest as well. They stated that they had many tal

ented artistic students who would love to paint on the wall. I agreed to lead in

the construction of it along with my friend and fellow AmeriCorps member Dylan.

Dylan and I came up with a few sketches of the wall, and with input

from my Habitat supervisor Nick and my partner Cliff, we came up with a solid plan. Stephen and Mary, also fellow AmeriCorps members who were the heads of this project, put in input as well. We came up with a finalized plan. The wall was to be 16 feet long, 6 ft high, and have 2 panels on both sides. The panels facing the rest of the outdoor classroom was to be painted with chalkboard paint. That way, teachers could utilize it as a way to teach students outside and students could also use it to draw on. The back side was to be painted with ex

terior paint so that the kids could paint murals on it. It could be painted over as time went by to start new murals.

On MLK Day, Dylan and I led between 7 and 10 volunteers all day long. We ran into a few hiccups along the way, such as cutting some of the beams meant to support the wall too short, but we kept going and finally finished at the end of the day. It was a huge success!

I feel very blessed to have worked on this project. Now, I hope the students will enjoy painting and drawing on the wall and I can wait to see what artwork is displayed on it in the future. Here are some pics below of the stages of the walls construction.

The side of the art wall that faces the rest of the outdoor classroom.

This side was painted with chalkboard paint.

Other side of the art wall. On this side, the students can paint murals.

Dylan nailing in the panels.

Laying out the frame work for the wall.