McGuire Visiting Artist Ver Ikeseh and the Mural Team Paint the New Middle School Mural

McGuire Visiting Artist

The McGuire Visiting Artist residency is a program that allows Blake to host a professional artist every other year. The program was started in 1993 by Dr. Bill and Nadine McGuire. This year’s McGuire visiting artist is Ver (pronounced “Vay”) Ikeseh. In an interview, Ikeseh said, “I saw the opportunity [to be the visiting artist], and I was like, okay, I didn’t really know about Blake, you know, before now, but so when I saw it, I was like, this is really cool, you know. I thought that, okay, this will be a good opportunity for me to come here and interact with you guys, and then also do these public projects together, you know, that kind of thing. So I applied, and then it’s an open, international call; several artists apply. I don’t know them, I don’t know their qualifications, but I was selected, and I was like, wow, this is really cool.”

Middle School Mural Team

The mural team met every Wednesday during tutorial to plan and prepare to paint the mural. During the first meetings, art teacher and MS Mural Team leader Ms. Vertin had the students paint murals on large pieces of cardboard to practice painting on bigger surfaces. In later meetings, students got to meet with Ver to go over ideas and plans for the mural. The main takeaways from these meetings were:

1. The idea of incorporating something to do with the Middle School house system.

2. Using bears because they are the mascot of our school.

3. Adding butterflies, because they were inspired by a mural of butterflies they saw during the mural tour they took around Minneapolis. Then, during “Mural Week,” the week of Oct 20 - 25, the Mural Team and all of the Blake Middle School students got the opportunity to work on the mural alongside Ver Ikeseh.

Painting the Mural

Students had many chances to work on the mural and collaborate with Ver Ikeseh. In addition to the mural team, students who had visual arts during the first quarter had the opportunity to help paint during some class periods. In addition to this, all of the middle school students were invited to help paint after school on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of Mural Week.

“It [was] really fun, I got to meet other people and work on something I don’t usually get to do. I got to work with a professional artist, and I got to contribute to something that will be there for a long time, which feels really special.” - 8th grader Katrina Strauss on painting the mural after school on Tuesday, October 21st.

“I wanted to make a lasting impact on our school, even after we graduate.” - Ro Amador Fitzgerald

“[Mural team] sounded like a really cool thing to do, and it’s a good way to be a part of the community.” - Poppy Alexander