Representations of peace — in the form of symbols, faces and words and derived from the minds and hearts of students — coalesce in the form of a mural gracing a north-facing outdoor wall at Gilbert High School in Anaheim.
The CITYarts PEACE WALL was formally unveiled on Thursday, Nov. 14, the focal point of a celebration featuring musical performances, poetry readings, painting demonstrations and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
At 60 feet wide, 12 feet high in the center and 10 feet high at each end, the PEACE WALL parallels Ball Road and can be seen by motorists traveling along the north-south thoroughfare.
The wall was created under the guidance of Gilbert High teacher Janelle Frese and local artist Jamie Kough, who took students’ depictions of peace, along with specifics on the placing of each piece, and crafted them into a mural.
“So virtually every little individual section or piece of art that’s embedded into this big piece of art, every single word, every single person, every single symbol, it’s all reflective of the student’s work,” Frese said.
The event was not only a celebration of the mural but of the creativity and work of the students who were in the English 3 Racial and Social Justice of Ethnic Studies classes taught by Frese.
While studying the history of Indigenous people, the students learned about the social justice movement “Leonard Peltier’s Walk to Justice,” which centered around the case of Leonard Peltier, 80, an Indigenous man who has been serving consecutive life sentences since being convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.
“And we investigated,” Frese said. “Kids got in groups, and some thought, ‘Oh, he should stay where he is,’ and others thought, ‘Oh, no, this is a grave injustice.’”
Frese’s students discovered a book featuring Peilter’s artwork that was published by CITYarts, a New York nonprofit connecting professional artists with young people for the purpose of engaging in public art projects, including murals and mosaics.
Frese began an email correspondence with CITYarts executive director Tsipi Ben-Haim, who, along with Frese, helped inspire an on-campus movement engaging students in art projects.
“We think that this could be the first step,” said Ben-Haim, who flew in from New York to attend the ceremony. “The first station to start with peace and to show everyone how youth can contribute to your community and be the productive creative force that you need to bring to the table.”
Gilbert High recently hosted an exhibit featuring 47 art pieces created by students, and Ben-Haim published some of the students’ artwork on CITYarts Pieces for Peace online exhibit.
Students then decided to create the PEACE WALL for the campus.
“And then my job was to come in and show them how to take these components and make it a cohesive piece that looks like one person made it,” Kough said.
“Think of it like a coloring book,” Kough said. “So, I’m taking all of their imagery, helping them put it together, and adding some components to it. But all the ideas were theirs.”
As part of the CITYarts 50 States of Peace initiative, the mural is the second of its kind in the nation.
The first is a 213-foot-long mosaic wall in the Jacob H. Schiff Park in Harlem, New York.
Several public officials attended the unveiling, including Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, who said the mural represents “community.”
“It’s not just the students,” Quirk-Silva said. “It’s the teachers, the artists, the city that come together to send a message now more than ever, that we must believe and hope.”
“We know that it’s artists that stand up through music, through murals, through photography, and through their poetry and their voices to say we can be better, we should be better and we need to be better,” she added. “So, with that, I’m so proud.”
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