The art of living
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St. Mary’s Catholic School in Cortland unveils mural
Before the Oct. 8 official mural unveiling at Cortland’s St. Mary’s School, student artists were outside cleaning the wall that for the last month they had been hard at work painting.
Students worked on the mural three days a week, after school, for four weeks. Photo | Amanda Miller
A blending of blue, yellow and white streamers was taped to the red bricks for the upcoming ribbon cutting by principal Denise Hall, complete with noisemakers and confetti. And art teacher Molly Reagan could be seen assembling chairs and equipment for a brief celebration and monumental message on mental health.
“They have learned not only how to plan and paint a mural, but how to collaborate with others … how to live and work for the good of others … how to keep their hands busy doing the good Lord’s work … how to maintain their own mental and emotional health through a creative activity off of screens and in the fresh air and sunshine and rain,” said Reagan, a St. Mary’s alumna, parishioner of St. Mary’s Church, and huge proponent of catholic education. “If those things aren’t bolstering their mental, social and emotional wellbeing, I’m not sure what is. More than talking about mental health, more than talking about our faith, more than talking about how to regulate emotions, these students modeled it.”
Kevin Reimer, Schools Grants and Scholarships coordinator, Catholic Schools Office, explained that the project, funded by the Child Health and Wellness Partnership, was designed to help children use art to make tangible some important abstract concepts from Catholic social and emotional learning, which include healthy relationships, following God, self-control and personal responsibility. The collaborative effort included partnering with Catholic Charities, the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, licensed social workers, and students from St. Mary’s and Randall Elementary.
Local social workers participated by holding organic conversations with the kids on topics such as how to sustain good mental health and emotional well-being – how working with our hands can help alleviate stress and how limiting screen time is a positive.
“We really gotta try to get out ahead of these kinds of things so that we can arm them with the tools they will need for their mental health in the long term,” Reagan said.
The mural reads, “Faith Hope Love” with a dove painted above the word Hope, symbolizing the peace of the Holy Spirit. Father Malachi Clark called it a “beautiful testimony to what St. Mary’s School is.”
Father is the parochial vicar of St. Mary’s, as well as St. Anthony of Padua, also in Cortland; St. Lawrence Mission in DeRuyter, St. Margaret in Homer and St. Patrick Oratory in Truxton.
“I saw [the mural] as it was beginning to take shape, and it was amazing just to see this, even though not a literal tapestry, but [a] wall tapestry, be formed into shape and so many small parts, all of which have to be there in order to create a beautiful whole, which is what we all are anyway,” he said. “Shows how indispensable each part of the piece is in order to create the whole puzzle.”
As part of the celebration, Father blessed the mural with holy water and the kids were asked to share what they loved most about their experience.
Fourth-grader Raina’s takeaway? “Well, I just liked everything equally because everything good deserves to be liked equally.”
