Edina firefighters plan to unveil a new gym at Station 1 this summer, featuring a mural painted by students participating in Edina High School’s Art Club.
A fire department representative contacted the EHS art department through their website, leaving a message about the opportunity for students to make a mural. “After discussion, we decided [it would] be a wonderful thing for the art club to take on,” Dalen Towne, art teacher and adviser of Art Club said.
Towne brought the idea up to senior Lillian Gundberg, one of the co-presidents of Art Club. Gundberg is an out-of-class artist at Zephyrus alongside senior co-president Lainey Maniak, the copy editor at Zephyrus. “I’ve always wanted to do an art-based community service project. So I thought it was [a] good [idea],” Gundberg said. “We have to draft a schedule for painting but I want to use it as an opportunity for students to utilize art to gain volunteer hours.”
Gundberg is the lead artist on the project. “During lockdown, I had a phase where I really wanted to paint a mural in my room,” Gundberg said. “So I just have a half-completed mural in my room right now that I never bothered to finish. But the process is pretty standard.”
After emails back and forth with the department, she learned dimensions and asked members of Art Club to send in ideas. Gundberg drafted three thumbnails and around a week later the fire department indicated which one they liked best. “So now we have to refine the sketch, and then the fire department is going to get paints—we have to send them what colors we’ll need,” Gundberg said. “And they’re going to fund all the supplies, which is great.”
With a finalized drawing in place, Gundberg hopes to use a projector to outline the mural and make the mural a paint-by-number so more Art Club members can help out. “I think [the mural will] make our club more of a community because we’re all working on it together,” freshman Alistar Gundberg said.
The mural is projected to be done in the next three months. “It’s going to be accessible for all city workers. So it’s not just going to be for just firefighters. It’s going to be for the city workers in Edina to utilize,” Towne said. “And I think it’s a great thing because it’s the students able to give to the community and show off their ability to people who would appreciate it in the community. But it also is a way of saying thank you for the service [to] our city workers and people who dedicate their lives to help us and assist us like firefighters, just to say thank you.”
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on April 18, 2024
