Inspired by AMP, students dream of their futures

LAKEVILLE — Students at Salisbury Central School are busy in art class creating images that answer the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

A reporter came by for a look on Monday, Sept. 20. In Gayle Christinat’s art classroom, fourth-grade students worked under the watchful eyes of Linda Sloane, director of SOAR (the after-school enrichment program at SCS) and teaching artist Jessica Russell from the American Mural Project (AMP) in Winsted.

The AMP is a massive mural, some 120 feet long, 48 feet high, and as much as 10 feet deep. It is an ongoing project, with its own campus in Winsted. It was conceived back in 1999 by artist Ellen Griesedieck of Sharon as a tribute to American workers.

The SCS students are working on their own version, to celebrate 20 years of SOAR at SCS. 

The COVID-19 pandemic put the project on hold for a year.

After the students are finished, their contributions will be fashioned into a mural by twenty 2 Wallpaper + Textiles, a Bantam company.

The completed mural will then be hung at Salisbury Central.

On Sept. 20 the students worked on line drawings. One young man, who plans on becoming an architect, was taking pains to get his drawing of a house right.

Another, who plans on playing professional football, was concentrating on the laces of a football.

One ambitious girl was combining images of books and scissors, because she plans on being both a librarian and a hairdresser.

The children were fiercely quiet as they drew. The adults moved around the room, offering guidance here and there, but mostly letting the students work.

Until the end of the period drew near, that is. As the students were directed to wrap things up and put their materials away, the room filled with chatter and laughter.