We are part of The Trust Project.
CLOQUET — Two friends, both artists, saw a two-year plan of creating a mural become reality when their mural was installed at Cloquet Middle School on Friday, June 10.
Local artist Adam Swanson said he had spoken with Cloquet Middle School art teacher Andrea Cacek about doing a mural, and after receiving two grants this year, the mural was created.
Students finished painting the mural earlier this year; however, Swanson said to install the mural on the outside wall by the garden, the type of adhesive used needed better weather.
The students were involved in every part of creating the mural, which took roughly four weeks of painting inside the school.
Cacek said the design started with taking students' drawings and ideas and looking through for themes and ideas that were shared.
ADVERTISEMENT
Many of the ideas included elements of people working in the garden, little shovels and lots of hands holding things, all of which have been incorporated into the final mural.
"Just how you can take all those separate pieces of art from those little minds and come up with something that is cohesive is what I thought was surprising," she said.
The mural was painted indoors in six sections before Swanson and Cacek put it up outside Friday.
Cacek said it was nice for the students to paint the mural earlier this year when it was cold and raining out.
"The kids were just excited to be a part of it, especially because it is so visible," she said.
Swanson's design incorporated his interest in science and technology and how it interacts with nature.
The project also had an educational component where the students involved learned about pollinators.
"The coolest thing about this mural is that it was part of sort of a bigger project which involved ... the Northeast Minnesota Beekeepers Association," he said. The association was able to give a presentation to the middle school students about pollinators.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cacek said students were really interested in learning about endangered bee species, especially since they thought endangered species wouldn't be near where they live.
"They don't think of anything in Minnesota as being endangered," she said. "It was cool for them to make that realization that it's not just pandas in China (for example)."
Jasper Swanson, a sixth grader who will be in seventh grade next year, worked on each stage of the mural and helped his father put the mural up on Friday.
Some of his favorite parts included watching the progress being made on the mural and painting the plants and flowers.
"It was either painting a bunch of different areas and coming back and seeing it touched up and having it better than it was before," he said. "Also just going through all the stages."
Jasper Swanson worked on the garden areas of the mural like the pumpkins and a few of the flowers.
"It'll be here a pretty long time," he said.
Adam Swanson said the most enjoyable part about the project has been working with the students, as almost all the art classes were involved in creating it.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I mean at least 300 students did a little bit and that’s not even counting the concept — coming up with concepts and stuff," he said.
One special aspect of working with the students were those who came out of the woodwork to help on the mural.
"They were really into the mural, so they would come in during gym or ask their reading teacher if they could come out or something and paint on the mural," he said.
While the mural is up and visible to any who would like to see it, even through some of the trees from Washington Avenue, there is an equal size space on the wall on the other side of a plastic shed.
Swanson said there no plans yet for another mural, but the space is there.
