Hall School Parents Organize Mural Project
Michele Arcand saw Hall Elementary School in Portland for the first time a few years ago when she visited the playground with her children. The building had been constructed nearly 50 years earlier as a temporary school to serve military families in Sagamore Village, and it looked uninviting. Arcand decided then that she wanted to paint a mural on the outside to make the building more attractive and welcoming so that it would better reflect the warmth of the school community.
After three years of advocacy and hard work, Arcand’s effort finally is coming to fruition. She teamed up with another parent, artist Sarah Herboldsheimer, to create a 40-panel mural that will be installed on the building’s exterior.
Every child and employee at Hall - from kindergartners to the principal, custodians and busdrivers - participated in the project by contributing a handprint for the mural. Every class chose a word that will be written on the mural in English and another of the 21 languages represented by the student population. The brightly colored panels also incorporate imagery suggested by students, such as a musical note and the basketball hoop in the playground.
The first panels will be installed on Friday, May 16, just in time for Hall School’s 50th anniversary celebration the following day. Arcand and Herboldsheimer plan to continue work throughout the summer, with the goal of completing the mural by the time school opens in September.
Both women are volunteering their time, and the project has taken over their lives. They shepherded Arcand’s ambitious idea through several levels of school department approval, solicited donations from local businesses and planned an open mic fundraiser for the project at the Dogfish Café. They’ve averaged three hours of sleep a night, and they’ve had little time to spend with their families. The project has taken over Arcand’s driveway; all week, Hall families are dropping by to help with the painting.
But even before the first panel is installed, the project already has accomplished exactly what they had hoped: building pride and a sense of community among Hall School families and neighbors.
“Our real goal,” said Herboldsheimer, “was to reflect on the outside what’s going on inside the school.”
