By Violet Li
A shipping container on campus could stick out, but when recreated well, it has the potential to brighten up the entire school grounds.
Students from Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School and Cranbourne Secondary College have collaborated with artist Rebekah Paige to paint a mural on a shipping container for the past five weeks.
The project was initiated by Cranbourne Carlisle.
The grey blue container, sitting on campus of Cranbourne Carlisle, now has a completely new look featuring contrasting colours of yellow and blue in the backdrop and icons of the earth, a flower, a little boy, birds, and rivers scattering across the horizon.
The theme of the mural stands out in bold fonts: many cultures, one community.
An unveiling ceremony was held on Friday 8 December where those involved in the project cut the opening ribbon and wrote down their names on the mural.
Ms Paige said she found the idea of working with students to create a beautiful mural so beautiful and meaningful at the same time.
The project started off with composition, then colour, and then the actual painting process, with each student having a section to work on.
“I really wanted to make sure that they [students] were the ones that created the mural. Not just me,” Ms Paige said.
“I was just there to cultivate creativity and inspiration.”
Cranbourne Secondary College Year 9 student Atlas was one of the students in the project.
He described the creation as fun, beautiful, nice, and relaxing.
“I mainly did the flower and the red, giant circle,” he said.
“We made different designs based on the prompt, and then the artist combined a bunch of them together. And then we basically just put everything together.”
Cranbourne Carlisle education support staff Amanda Kennedy, who coordinated the project, said the school initiated the mural to engage students in doing things practically.
“We wanted to hide the shipping container, but we also wanted to represent our community, a community that is 70 per cent multicultural,” she said.
Cranbourne Carlisle principal Sally Webb said the mural was an asset to the community.
“We wanted to connect the local youth to the community and to our school, and to have them take some pride in our school,” she said.
“When they walk past, they can show their family and friends the work, and they can see our school as a place that they belong to.”
Ms Webb said the schools would paint more murals with mosaics next year.
