Kids at work: Franklin students beautify Lincoln Park structure with nature-themed mural

The once “scary” and “drab” structure at Lower Lincoln Park is getting a nature-themed makeover at the hands of more than 400 kids and some volunteer parents from the neighboring Franklin Elementary School.

Noticing the dark concrete shelter in the middle of the park, parents Cara Halldin and Holly Thompson Duffy thought it would make the perfect spot for a colorful showcase of students’ skills .

“This used to all be brown, so it was really boring,” said second-grader Nelle Harnishfeger, smearing green paint on the concrete with her friend Brady Satter. “Then somebody had the idea to bring in a muralist, somebody who paints murals. She thought of the idea that we could have it have more, like, spark and cheer.”

In a couple of weeks’ time, the full structure in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood will be completely covered in paint with an anti-graffiti coat. The mural wraps around the outside walls with a daytime scene of local flora and fauna to complement the wildness of the park. The perspective changes as one walks around the four walls, with large yellow balsamroot flowers and critters shrinking as the view zooms out to someone walking their dog in the distance past a watchful turkey.

“We’re trying to paint it like nature, springtime stuff,” Nelle said. “And then in winter we can still feel like it’s spring, ’cause we see that.”

Inside, it’s night. A large mountain peak is shrouded with a deep-blue sky where two figures stargaze, nocturnal animals joining the scene.

Friends Oliver Doak-Dirks and Zeke Whitbeck-Jones remark on their peers’ progress as they work on the base of the mountain, staying more or less in the lines as they haphazardly glob purple paint onto the concrete.

“It’s fun and it’s relaxing and it’s peaceful,” Zeke said.

“One thing that’s fun about this is that you get to wear big shirts,” Oliver said, stretching his arms out to show off the adult-sized tee he wore inside out to protect his day clothes from the paint that inevitably works its way onto the kids.

The project is the result of efforts from Franklin’s parent-teacher group and parents from the school’s Alternative Parent Participation Learning Experience program, where parents commit to volunteer at least 90 hours per year in the classroom.

Parents secured a $10,000 grant from Spokane Arts for the project, paired with paint and gear donations from area stores.

They selected Corinna Ren, a Spokane artist, to design the project and help paint with the kids and parents.

“A big part of this has been education for the kids,” Ren said. “We’re getting the opportunity to get them excited about art, letting them know they can do something themselves.”

Since the start of the school year, students have been eagerly preparing for their undertaking, starting with a schoolwide town hall in the fall where kids proposed design ideas.

Several elements, like a rabbit with a butterfly on its nose and Spokane’s signature wild turkeys, came straight from student suggestions.

The grant also paid for instructors from Spokane Art School to give lessons on mural-painting, showing kids “big art isn’t scary,” Ren said.

All Franklin students will contribute to the painting, both in the separate parent volunteer classrooms and the school’s general population.

“We started this thinking, ‘What can we do post-COVID to bring the school together?’ ” Halldin said.

“It shows them that there’s a possibility to beautify their community.”

Editor’s note: This story has been changed to correct the spelling of Artist Corinna Ren’s name.