In celebration of National Public Works Week, city staff are excited to announce an art project with five of our elementary schools.
Art teachers and their students are in the process of painting city snow plow blades. City Fleet staff cleaned and primed the metal blades, and staff delivered them to the schools, with a supply of paint in primary colors, allowing students and teachers to mix additional hues.
Participating elementary schools are Ann J. Kellogg, Valley View (in the City of Springfield), and Verona in the Battle Creek district, and Prairieview and Riverside in the Lakeview district. City staff proposed the project to the districts and staff at the five schools volunteered to take it on with their students.
The City of Springfield provided the plow blade to Valley View.
The teachers and students chose what to paint, and teachers have used the opportunity for a variety of art lessons.
At Valley View, art teacher Annette Jones chose the Bearcat mascot for her fifth graders, who were learning how to paint from the background to the foreground after school last week. As students moved to painting the mascot, Jones showed them how to paint the fur, explaining that hair grows out from the middle of the body.
At Riverside last week, art teacher Sherry Callen’s third graders worked on their Jackson Pollock-inspired painting. As students took turns splattering paint from dish detergent bottles, Callen asked them to notice how they could control the lines as they painted. She praised one student’s “good art observation” that the project needed more white.
Once the plow paintings are complete, likely in early June, all five blades will be on display for the summer at the Department of Public Works building, 150 S. Kendall St. All are invited to visit and check out these pieces, which will sit in the grass next to the northern driveway to the building.
Officials invite our neighbors to vote for your favorite plow blade art! Visit the city’s website, battlecreekmi.gov, and click Plow Painting 2017! under the Get Connected tab.
City staff thank the principals, teachers and students for participating in this first-ever city project, as well as the City of Springfield for providing a plow blade!