Green Bay overpass becomes a canvas for school mural

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Students at Howe Elementary School may feel a little more inspired to go to school on Monday. A long-awaited playground mural is coming to life near the school in downtown Green Bay, brush stroke by brush stroke.

Appleton artist Irineo Medina began painting the mural Friday morning on the pylons of the East Mason Street overpass at S. Madison St. The art will feature images of six Howe students chosen from dozens of submissions from parents.

“Especially for children to see them and their skin tones as beautiful is incredibly important, when that’s not always the message that we receive. There’s also a bit a representation in me as the artist, but, yeah, just trying to be reflective of the student body, so there’s quite a few ethnicities here,” Medina said. “I think the main thing is that this being an incredibly diverse school, being reflective of the people that go to school here.”

Howe students also got the chance to help with the painting during the school day.

Medina added, “Them seeing themselves as beautiful, seeing people that look like them as beautiful, but then also seeing an artist that might look like them. You know, growing up I didn’t have much representation in a positive light of who I could be or what I could do, and so a huge goal of mine is to inspire children of color think about, ‘Oh, I could be an artist one day.’ You know often times we are delivered a message of ‘we may not be.’”

The mural is expected to be finished Sunday. It’s sponsored by Fox Cares Foundation through Fox Communities Credit Union.

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