When school lets out at the end of June, the windows of many Tri-City public schools are covered with plywood to protect them from vandals.
But at Sir Frederick Banting middle school in Coquitlam, the plywood will look a little friendlier - and certainly more colourful - this summer.
The school, located a block off Como Lake Avenue, gets its share of vandalism each summer but the parent advisory council and students thought the plain plywood was ugly. Instead of averting their eyes from the building during the summer months, they took action and started a school painting project.
This summer, Banting will look like an Impressionist painting instead of a war zone.
"It looked kind of spooky with the windows all boarded up," said Teanna Lackner, a Grade 8 student, whose mom, Bonnie Gibson is on the school PAC. She talked to her mom about beautifying the boards and the PAC took on the project, paying for the paint and collecting other supplies from local paint stores.
"We thought it would be neat if we could paint them and make them look 'happier,'" Lackner said.
The project required a manager and art teacher Linda Cairns took the job on with enthusiasm. She painted a few of the boards last summer in the "Mondrian" style - simple blocks in primary colours inspired by Dutch painter Pieter Mondriaan - but it wasn't enough. Over the past several weeks, the painting job has become a class art project for about 200 students in Grades 6 to 8.
"I had a sudden inspiration," is how Cairns described the sunflower motif she chose after seeing a profuse array of them in a store catalogue. "Everyone loves sunflowers and they can be hung in every way."
For inspiration, the students looked at Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch post-Impressionist painter, as well as other artists. Cairns showed students how to make a colour wheel and the way colour can be used in design. General Paint in Coquitlam donated some mis-tinted paint and students used the mixes to create a rainbow of colours for their designs.
It was a big job, requiring lunchtime volunteers as well as classroom time for painting, and by the end of the school year, 64 large plywood boards of varying sizes will have been painted by students using their own designs.
Lackner is thrilled to see the project coming together after all these weeks - and just before she graduates to high school at Dr. Charles Best. "It's great that something that I did is going to stay for a long time."
Her friend Sophie Bruneau, also in Grade 8, agrees. "This is our way to show that Banting is a community. We want to show we're a school that does things together," said Bruneau. "This is our legacy."
