LYNN – Lynn Public Schools (LPS) and St. Mary’s have partnered with Beyond Walls to refine the nonprofit’s interdisciplinary, arts-based education program, Classroom to the Streets (CTTS).
“The program has so far included 19 lessons and lesson plans based on our artwork that we have installed here in Lynn,” said Al Wilson, founder and CEO of Beyond Walls. “Those lesson plans were taught in the classroom, and then Beyond Walls has facilitated this program for thousands of students, primarily middle and high school students.”
The enhanced version of the program now pairs art teachers from LPS and St. Mary’s with street artists to design and install large-scale public artworks at various locations around the city.
Teachers will work with Beyond Walls educators to create lesson plans around the co-designed public art installations, targeting concrete student learning outcomes.
“The educators would share with the artist some of their issues and the issues their students were facing, the themes that emerged through their teaching and learning experiences with the students, and that would then guide the design as well as the installation of new large-scale public art,” Wilson said. “Again, this is still reflecting the diversity of cultures here in Lynn, but at the same time, it’s taking into account specific student learning outcomes.”
In addition to students, teachers and artists collaborating to create a work that defines them all, teachers can earn CTE (Certificate and Technical Education) credits for their work.
“It effectively allows them to continue their education, which is great,” Wilson said.
This fall, the program will allow students to participate in field trips and mural painting tours, connecting what they learn in the classroom with what they see on the street.
“We think this is a way to increase student engagement by harnessing the power of culturally relevant street art. But it’s also kind of for the people or developed by the people who know the student body best,” Wilson said.
