Imagine a school that comes complete with water slides, pet gazelles and a head teacher who parachutes into the playground at break-time.
That’s what children at Al Mushrif Primary School in Abu Dhabi imagined when they were asked to draw what they dreamed their new school campus might look like. The pupils then transformed their musings into an eye-catching mural, with guidance from Dubai-based artist Jennifer Simon.
The permanent art instillation is made up of 20 30x30-centimetre painted blocks, which can be turned around to reveal three more pictures on different sides.
The images represent Abu Dhabi’s past, with black, grey and sepia used to resemble an old photo, and the present, with colourful Abu Dhabi landmarks. The third theme includes holidays, storytelling and celebration, while the fourth image represents the future, featuring the students’ vision of their school’s new home.
Despite what they envisioned, head teacher Emma Shanahan isn’t convinced she’ll be parachuting into the playground anytime soon – and says that they’ll be looking after chickens rather than gazelles at the new site.
Shanahan first collaborated with Simon five years ago on a similar school mural when she was the head teacher at Al Muna Primary School. “Jen does a lot of work with children because her art is vibrant and exciting, so it’s really accessible to them,” says Shanahan. “The children painted from real experience, so this is something they’ll remember when they’re old.”
Simon tried to include in the mural elements from every child’s drawing.
“If the students were lucky, they got to paint their own drawing onto the mural,” she says. “Many of the girls drew mermaids, so the mermaid is a prominent feature.”
Every one of the school’s 566 students, as well as teachers, parents and security guards, picked up a paintbrush and made their mark.
Fatima Adam, 9, chose to spend all of her lunch breaks working on the mural during the five days it took to paint.
“What I love about it is there are splashes of colour all around,” she says. “I imagine that I can do whatever I want here – I’m in a world full of colours. And the best thing is – Al Mushrif School.”
The mural, which was unveiled to students at a special assembly last week, is being exhibited in the main entrance of the school’s building in Al Bateen, and the students will be taking it with them when they move to their new campus.
“I saw it as an opportunity to prepare our school community for the move – having a physical object that was created here that we’re also bringing to the new site,” says Shanahan.
Nine-year-old Talin Haussam, who designed and painted an exploding cake for the mural, smiled when she saw the result and said: “This is probably the best day of my life.”
“I feel so happy for her – it means so much for her art to be recognised,” says Simon. “Most kids’ artwork gets shoved into cupboards, whereas this is something they get to see every day.
“I’ve noticed that once people reach adulthood, they often say: ‘I can’t draw or paint’. That fear starts in primary school – they’re afraid it won’t look like the photo image.
“Hopefully, this project has taken away the fear that they can’t do art. Even if it’s only a flower they painted, it’s their flower. Hopefully it will inspire them to do greater things.”
Simon has also been working with Al Yasat primary school pupils, who have just moved to a new school site in Al Shamkah, as part of the same “Mural Mania” project, which is supported by the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Federation.
Their wall mural, which also explores Abu Dhabi’s transition from past to present to future, will be unveiled on Thursday.
