Morganton Day School middle schoolers start work on long-term mural project

The past, present, and future will converge in a student-led project at Morganton Day School where an artist will paint a mural on the side of the gym, which once housed an armory where soldiers trained.

The words “National Guard” can still be seen on the building.

The project is part of the ongoing Front Porch Series, which is an annual event where all middle school students participate in a large-scale project to connect with the community.

Middle school humanities teacher Susan Cato-Chapman said the basic idea for the mural is creating visual representations of the past, present, and future that honor the people and stories connected to the armory as well as reflect on the students using the space today.

Sophia Feduke, an eighth grade student and member of the project’s steering committee, said that for the first Front Porch Series project, students shared their personal stories. The second project, last year, focused on interviewing people in the community to hear their stories and perspectives.

“This year, we wanted to do something that was able to inspire the next generation and was able to honor people who have helped the Morganton community, so we decided to make a mural,” Sophia said.

Cato-Chapman said the middle schoolers are divided into four committees: a steering committee, a design committee, a media committee, and a research committee.

Each committee meets once a month.

“We’re not all meeting together at the same time,” Sophia said. “But you still have to be able to communicate with each other and be able to know what topic everybody’s on … so every single committee understands what we’re going to do and put into the project.”

Cato-Chapman said that once an artist is selected, the chairs of each committee will present the project to the Morganton Day School Board of Trustees for its approval since the mural is a permanent fixture.

“It really gives them an opportunity to have that experience of how you build a project, (and) how you receive final approval and funding,” Cato-Chapman said.

Sixth-grader Nora Brisson, chair of the steering committee, said that early on in the project the design committee mused on the idea of a box split down the middle with a soldier on one side and a student on the other. This is not a final concept, however.

Cato-Chapman said the students have done well pinpointing ideas to share with an artist. She said they want it to be a collaboration where the artist takes their ideas and creates the final design.

Nora said the mural will likely be completed in about a year. Cato-Chapman added that it is well-timed considering the school will be 50 years old in 2028.