By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

December 8, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – For the latest group of Kansas City Art Institute students to create mural panels for the exterior walls of the former Scarritt Elementary School (3509 Anderson), the project ended right where it began: at the Historic Northeast’s Kansas City Museum.

KCAI instructor Hector Casanova began the Scarritt Mural Project roughly three years ago, with the hope of beautifying the closed neighborhood school that had become a target for vandalism. Each semester, a new group of students have taken on a section of the building, which encompasses an entire city block. This fall, Casanova’s KCAI students completed and installed the final panels of the project.

The semester started with the students getting a feel for the Northeast community. In their quest to formulate ideas for the mural project, the KCAI students visited Cliff Drive, The Concourse, and the Kansas City Museum. On Wednesday, December 7, the students once again traveled to the museum to make their final presentations on the semester-long mural project that completed the exterior mural artwork at Scarritt Elementary.

In fact, Casanova noted during the event that the Kansas City Museum has been involved in the Scarritt Mural Project since the early stages. While Kansas City Public Schools provided the bulk of the materials, the museum also stepped up to help make the Scarritt Mural Project a reality.

“When we were first starting the project, the Kansas City Museum helped us do a little bit of fundraising to get one of the more expensive materials, which was mural varnish,” said Casanova. “This is varnish that is made specifically for murals. It completely seals the wooden panels.”

With the materials in tow, the project was a go. Each semester, Casanova’s student conceive, design, and paint unique murals which are designed to display core values like beauty in nature, unity, diversity, teamwork, and revitalization. This year’s student murals featured dinosaurs building houses, animals at play, butterflies fluttering around water, and much more.

Another key value throughout this project has been faith: as Casanova and his students undertook the massive endeavor, the fate of the KCPS facility hung in the balance.

“In a way, this whole project has been an act of faith,” said Casanova. “As the future of the school building itself is up in the air, these mural panels could be there for a year, or they could be there for 10 years. We don’t know.”

Luis Cordoba, the Executive Director of Student Intervention Programs for KCPS, said after the student presentations that the school district would like to find a way to re-open the Scarritt Elementary building in some capacity.

“There has been some conversation about bringing the Scarritt building back to life for the community, having maybe a community center,” said Cordoba. “However, we want to wait so that the appropriate individuals from that department can make that decision.”

With the Scarritt Mural Project now completed, Casanova isn’t waiting around for his next opportunity to beautify the community through art. This week, Casanova received a list from KCPS of other potential buildings under their control that could be a fit for a public art installation.

“I drove around yesterday and started scouting them out,” said Casanova.

For more information on this project, check out the Facebook page “KCAI Illustration: Scarritt Elementary School Murals.”