Renowned Cambridge Artist Works with Braintree High Students on Community Mural

Within a few weeks, a new piece of artwork will adorn a second-floor wall in the lobby. The 12-foot-long, 8-foot-high mural, depicting local activities and nature through four seasons, is being crafted by students with the help of an artist whose projects have been celebrated throughout the Boston area and around the country.

The muralist David Fichter said during a recent visit to Johanna Chase's ceramics class that he has helped craft murals at some 350 schools over the past 27 years, from Massachusetts to New York, and that the BHS mural is one of the most complex he has worked on because it contains both bas relief, or sculpted clay tiles, and colored glass.

"I'm excited because this is a great ceramics program," Fichter said.

Two grants helped get the project off the ground – one for $5,000 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and one for $500 from the Braintree Arts Lottery Council. The Braintree grant requires matching fundraising, and Chase said she is reaching out to local business owners, who can get their name and logo on a tile for donations of $50 or more.

Chase, a professional potter who has displayed her work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and came to BHS five years ago, has "brought the ceramics program to life," Director of Art Joan Carroll said.

Brainstorming for the mural began last fall and involved members of the Clay Club that Chase started this year, along with adult students from Braintree's . They decided on a design that features images of real Braintree High students in front of tree-framed windows that look out onto the four seasons.

Autumn includes the farmer's market at , winter has a snowman in front of , prom-going students and represent spring, and summer shows Relay for Life and . Local animals and plants dot the entire mural.

"It's a really great opportunity," Chase said. "You are creating this permanent contribution to the school. It's their own voice, their own ideas."

The students began a few weeks ago with the clay work, followed by putting together the mosaic, and are now in the process of glazing and firing. Chase said she hopes to mount the mural in the beginning of April.

"I can't believe how quickly it's gone," she said.

Cambridge-based artist Fichter has helped guide the project as students rotate through their classes, an experience that has been a part of his larger body of work since 1985, when he collaborated with his first public school in Lawrence. Since then, he has joined hundreds of projects in several northeastern states, and cites the collaborative nature of the work as its main draw for him.

Senior Arianna Martinez, who plans to major in art next year, said ceramics is fresh for her, different from her past experiences painting and drawing. "It's all new, so it's exciting," she said.