Ed Portal’s mural club puts ingenuity first
When Allston-Brighton students joined the Harvard Ed Portal’s Mural Club: Street Art & Community earlier this spring, they hoped to create a public mural to represent them and their community. The students began the semester in person but quickly had to transition to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic — but that didn’t stop them from creating their own works of art. In past sessions of the Mural Club, Allston-Brighton students in grades six through eight spent eight weeks working with two instructors: a Boston artist and educator and an intern from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Together, they created public murals for their local communities. This year, students instead produced individual works of art with virtual guidance from their instructors, local artist Chanel Thervil and Harvard undergraduate Gabi Maduro Salvarrey. Although the club functioned differently than in the past, students said it was still exciting to explore online and...