Students of All Ages Work on Mural for Children's Hospital

Greendale high school, middle school and elementary school students are collaborating to create a mural for the The Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

High school teacher Pam Merkel, working with other teachers, plans to have the mural ready for display at the hospital in March. It will stay for about a month.

Merkel is working with teachers Kristina Mitchell, Nicole Lehtinen, Rebecca Lowes and Kristine Bertling. They began planning the mural in August when they agreed on a city theme for the artwork. 

There's not much to see right now. Nine panels with pencil drawings will be painted and framed to form a city. Students and teachers are drawing inspiration from a print out of Harlem, New York, Merkel said. 

High school students in the Art Honor Society are working on the mural. They are in the process of drawing and painting the bigger, more complex background items of the city, such as buildings, roads and parks.

The mural will then move onto the middle school to add in taxis, cars and people, and then be disbursed among Greendale's three elementary schools to add in their flavor.

Merkel said she's done projects in the past similar to this one at the elementary levels, but this is the first time she has done it across grade levels and schools. 

"In my vision we will get an adorable mixture of art works," she said.

After the mural's stay at Children's Hospital, Merkel said she hopes to find a permanent home in the school district.

Editor's Note: Patch will be following the mural to the middle school and elementary schools.