Community Comes Together To Create ‘Destination’ Mural at Garfield School Complex

By Melissa Moore-Randall

As development in Revere continues to bring a fresh look to the city, a spot at the Garfield School Complex has been transformed thanks to a team effort by the Revere community.

Wayne Godbout, an ELL teacher at the Paul Revere School who previously worked at the Garfield Elementary School and graffiti artist, gave new life to a mural project on the grounds of the complex.

“The first seed was planted by Nikki Murphy, an art teacher at Garfield, who initially began the project and developed the theme. I was approached by Director of Fine Arts Kelly Williams who had secured a grant with the Community Development Office at City Hall. She was looking for creative staff and the continuation of the mural began. Kelly actively seeks out RPS staff with talent and ideas for projects involving students.”

The mural is based on the theme, Choose Your Destination, which ties in with the nearby MBTA in conjunction with a variety of occupations the students selected.   The grant allowed for the students to learn valuable artistic skills while also being paid.

“We met on Wednesdays for skill building lessons. That also gave us the opportunity to have guest muralists and study examples of artists. Students were also able to tour the Urban Art Museum and take a graffiti class in Beverly. We had some great side adventures leading up to beginning our work on the project.”

RHS Students Evelyn Morales and Kimhong Cang were excited to be part of the project.

“Working on the mural was much more tiring than I expected with the hot summer conditions. I was glad to have the original sketch of the mural, as it gave us an idea of how we were going to finish the project. Finishing the mural was very satisfying, and it was fun to work with a group of fellow artists,” said Morales.

“I was excited and got to learn a lot of stuff while doing it. I wish there was a lot more time so we don’t really rush it. I tried not to put too much of my art styles in the mural, and I tried to put all the kid’s characters with the original kids’ art. Also meeting with other local artists is super helpful,” added Chang.

In addition to Williams, who Godbout credits for securing the grant to finish the project, he noted how so many other members of the Revere community helped it happen.

“Danielle Osterman. Revere’s Community Development Program Manager, was a huge help in guiding and securing the grant for us. She is promoting a focus on public art projects that involve Revere youth as an opportunity to give them career development exploration.”

Laura Christopher of the Transformative Development Initiative (TDI), which is a program of MassDevelopment that promotes place-based economic development with a strong focus on community engagement. The students met with her one day per week to help them inventory opportunities for public art and learn more about the process of bringing art from an idea to an installation in the neighborhood. Discussions ranged from city approval processes to imagining ways that businesses and community members could be directly involved in projects.”

“Members of the RPS staff were also valuable in completing the project. RHS Art Teacher, Ann Waters, donated her class room and supplies while Paul Revere Art Teacher, Sam Wick, also provided advice and resources. RPS Director of Facilities Carl Svendsen secured the scaffolding and allowed us to have access to the building as needed, and custodian Anthony Dellaiacono, was a big help offering to help in any way including with supplies, resources, access to the building on weekends, and even cleaning brushes for us. It was a community effort.”

Kelly Williams was excited to see the project completed. “It was wonderful to have Wayne team up with our students. He worked hard to research and expose the students to local street artists, graffiti art, and artists resources in our area. When I learned that Wayne was a graffiti artist in his free time I was excited to involve him in the Fine Arts Department knowing students would connect to his style of art as well. I am really looking forward to more student murals around the city.” If you would like to see more of Wayne’s amazing graffiti art you can follow him on Instagram @myrt22art.