Alpharetta High School Art Students Inspire Community Pride through Mural Project

Overwhelmed with joy, Alpharetta High School art student Jordan Bride couldn’t wait to share the news with her mother. When she found out that she had been selected for a second year to create a mural for the city of Alpharetta, she jumped out of her bed to wake up her sleeping mom with proud screams of excitement.

Jordan is one of six Alpharetta High students selected this year to design 14 murals that can be seen for miles along the Big Greenway Trail. The other muralists include Victoria Ramirez, Sophie Comeau, Emily Hartnell, Kaitlynn Mitchell, and Aaliya Panda.

“Students were selected based on their artistic ability and interest, through an application process,” explained Alpharetta High School fine arts teacher Alaa Belkasim. “The students who were selected put a lot of effort into making the designs flexible.”

The project began in 2023 with just nine murals through a partnership initiated by the City of Alpharetta, Rotary Club of North Fulton, and local schools as a way for the community to engage with public art. Alpharetta High has been there since the beginning. Each year, the young artists follow the theme “clean water for all,” to emphasize sustainability and environmental stewardship. Fulton County Schools Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator Elizabeth Eppes believes the opportunity is rewarding for the selected participants but also challenging in the best ways.

“This challenged them to be innovative and collaborative in ways that go beyond traditional classroom projects,” Eppes stated. “It pushed them to problem-solve on the spot, which is such a valuable skill for any artist.”

The muralists had to overcome a number of challenges even before they stepped foot on the trail. They had to adapt their creative processes in ways that forced them to rethink their approaches to their individual designs. Instead of painting on canvases, the students had to adjust to cylindrical surfaces.

“Painting on curved surfaces required them to rethink composition and perspective,” Eppes says. “They also had to consider how the artwork would be viewed from multiple angles by people walking or biking along the trail.”

The student artists had two days to complete their murals. Professional mural artist Annalysa Kimball, hired by the city, guided the students through the process. She conducted a 2-3 hour-long workshop with the eager artists to fine-tune designs, select colors, and develop painting strategies, but sometimes things just don’t always go as planned.

“One of my students had water leaking from the turret she was painting, and the water was making her paint run and peel on some areas,” Belkasim recalls. “She had to keep adjusting and reapplying layers of paint to the mural.”

The students also had to plan around unpredictable rain delays and overcome logistical obstacles. The murals are spread over several miles along the trail, which made transporting supplies and water challenging, but Eppes believes it was all worth it.

“This was rewarding because the students got to see their work become part of the community in a very real and lasting way,” she expressed. “It also gave them real-world experience in public art, from planning and scaling designs to working outdoors under varying conditions, skills that are invaluable for aspiring artists.”

Community members enjoying the Greenway will see more murals from Alpharetta High students in the future.

“The city has invited my students to return as former participants to work as mentors and volunteers,” Belkasim boasts. “Alpharetta High consistently has the highest percentage of selected students, and we plan to continue this tradition!”