Students from Oakwood Friends School and the Spackenkill community came together to paint a collaborative Black Lives Matter mural created by local senior Mary Haddad.  Using a unique paint-by-number design style, this inclusive project involved students from both communities at the middle and high school levels. Never having met before, the students collaborated on this project that took over 320 hours in two and a half months in the hopes of combining their efforts to make an impact in the fight to stop racism.

The mural will be on display at the following galleries/events in the coming months:

Cornell Creative Arts Center—Kingston—May

Juneteenth Event—City of Poughkeepsie

Womenswork.art—Poughkeepsie—July

The Art Effect—Poughkeepsie—August/September 

Click here to listen to recent interviews on Radio Kingston’s The Good Work Hour and Let’s Talk, Kingston: 

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/the-good-work-hour/episodes/the-story-behind-the-blm-mural-co-created-by-45-teen-artists

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/lets-talk-kingston/episodes/lets-talk-kingston-about-the-spackenkill-community-blm-mural

Click here to read more about the project in the Poughkeepsie Journal and Chronogram: 

https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/education/2021/04/23/black-lives-matter-mural-spackenkill-oakwood-students-display/7345016002/

Freedom Ride | In the Classroom | Hudson Valley | Chronogram Magazine

Many thanks to Mary and all the students who made this project possible!