Justice Murals partnership with JuSTEMagine

By: Clare Schinzel

A picture is worth a thousand words.

That phrase wonderfully sums up Justice Murals’ mission. Justice Murals is an organization that creates extraordinary works of art about social issues ranging from recreating destroyed murals from Kabul to commemorative art pieces to honor Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month.

Back in 2013, STEM was changed to STEAM to incorporate “art.” Such inclusion was necessary in order to honor such feats accomplished by Carolyn Considine: the founder and leader of Justice Murals. Her goal is to help students present their social views and promote justice through art.

Picture courtesy of the Justice Murals website

JuSTEMagine groups have an interesting project ahead of them. Groups in Oklahoma, Omaha, and Colorado are eager to participate in an upcoming project with Justice Murals. For the collaboration, JuSTEMagine will ask students to create works of art that exemplify topics like kindness, STEAM, or other activities and ideas. After the students have completed their artwork, Justice murals will combine the pictures into one unified piece of art.

Looking to the future, JuSTEMagine groups are also eager to work with SPARKPositivty––an organization that encourages healthy lifestyles and compassion for children––and Justice Murals to develop artwork with a Social-Emotional Learning theme. That way, students can share their perspectives and personal experiences on an often overlooked topic.

One major aspect of STEM careers is the ability to work together and balance ideas off of other people. Through these projects and partnerships, students are going to be able to share ideas about justice through communal art and learn more about the collaborative/creative process.

In a way, the mural collaborative art is like the acronym “STEAM:” each letter stands for a different word, but each word works together to create a cohesive mission.