General News
23 June, 2020
Mural paints picture of schools diversity
MAREEBA State School has added a touch of colour and history to their walls with the painting of a mural within the school grounds.
MAREEBA State School has added a touch of colour and history to their walls with the painting of a mural within the school grounds.
The idea of painting a mural at the school has been passed around for many years by Visual Art Teacher Rose Torrisi and what better time to begin the mural than during the quiet times of COVID-19.
Three designs were developed and voted on by the Mareeba State School staff with many of the student’s contributing to the murals painting.
Many current year 6 students contributed to the mural and were able to leave a lasting mark on their school for years to come.
Mareeba State School Principal Nicholas Shirley believes that the mural represents the rich diversity found both inside the school and in the community.
“It’s an absolute reflection of the school, the context, the culture and the heritage of our school,” he said.
“The mural fits in with our school cliental really well, it’s very vibrant.
“The kids and parents have really been drawn to it and admiring it in the afternoons.”
The mural painted represents Mareeba State School with the sun showcasing the well-known 300 sunny days a year, the meeting of the waters of the Barron River and Granite Creek and the children playing represents the diverse interests that children have at Mareeba State School.
The initial push behind the murals painting was to better represent Mareeba State School and the vast differences in culture and heritage of all their students.
“I wanted to represent Mareeba State School so I looked at what Mareeba meant to people and this culminated on the mural we created,” Ms Torrisi said.
“One of the main reasons we wanted to really involve the year 6 students is so they had a hand in creating a lasting legacy for their year level.
“In years to come they can come back to the school and see what they had done when they were younger.”
The students from class 6C had a massive helping hand in the painting of the mural and are really happy with it and what it represents.
“It represents our school as a community,” they said.
With the success of this mural both Mr Shirley and Ms Torrisi are excited to start looking at expanding with artworks like the mural and look for other areas around the school that could do with a makeover.
