Buzz Aldrin students recently created artwork for the newly renovated headquarters of the Montclair Ambulance Unit on Walnut Street. The Unit is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and in the fall, asked Principal Major Jennings if the school’s Mural Painting classes, led by teacher Lauren Kaiser, could design and create murals for the headquarters.
Kaiser met with Chief James Mazza who showed her around the HQ so that they could decide on two spaces for the murals (one for each Mural Painting class). “We chose the arched spaces above the big glass doors in their lobby because they would be most visible to the public. I showed the students photos of the spaces, and we then did a Zoom meeting with Chief Mazza and Deputy Chief Michael Craig so that they could introduce themselves and talk to the students about what the unit does on a day-to-day basis. They also gave the students a virtual walking tour of the headquarters,” said Kaiser. “The students had many terrific questions for them, and Chief Mazza and the staff were so excited that our Buzz students were going to take this on.”
Once the students saw where their murals would go, the two classes each had a brainstorming session, came up with individual ideas, and then voted as a class on their favorites. One mural's theme is "Montclair Loves our EMS" and depicts a view of Edgemont Park. It was designed by 8th grade artist Vivian James and the students worked in teams to paint it in the classroom studio. The other mural the class chose is an emoji-themed design, to bring smiles to the EMS staff throughout the day, and each student chose their own emoji to create. They all used acrylic paint and were able to use their color mixing skills and brush techniques on their murals.
“The students had a great time working on this project. I installed the murals earlier this spring, leading up to the grand reopening of the EMS headquarters at the Walnut Street Fair on May 7,” shared Kaiser. “It was a great turn out and the EMS was so proud to show off their new murals!”