A new mural is going up this winter on the hallway leading into the band room at Petersburg High School.
Petersburg’s school board got a tour of the work in progress this week. Art teacher Ashley Lohr said students are painting the mural the first hour of every school day, painting while the band is also practicing.
“We have our inspirations from obviously music so there’s instruments placed in the mural and then we have influence from our atmosphere here so we have Devils Thumb and we have northern lights and we’re stilling in the process of putting those things up and some more planning but if your were to walk down the hallway I think that you’d be, you’d see that there’s lots of progress happening so far,” Lohr told the board.
Work on the mural started in November with donations of paint and supplies from Hammer and Wikan Hardware.
A 1950s-era yearbook photo of the base drum in the PHS band is the inspiration for the design on the band room doors.
The doors going into the band room are also getting paint, using the PHS lettering design from an old base drum photographed in a PHS yearbook dating back to the 1950s.
Lohr said 11 students have been working on the mural and they hope to finish by sometime in April.
In other news, the board also heard about plans to host Art Fest at the high school April 20-23rd. Lohr said art students from around Southeast will be coming to Petersburg to take workshops put on by both local and visiting artists.
“So regional art teachers and students come here,” Lohr explained. “It’s kinda like Music Fest. All the high school students that are very inspired in the art room or would love to take different kinds of workshops. There’s tons of different workshops that will be offered, photography, painting, carving, mask making.”
PHS also hosted Art Fest in 2011. Lohr is also looking for volunteer help from the community to put on the four-day event. The high school will be raising money for Art Fest next week with Petersburg Live, a local talent show. That’s Thursday, February 23rd at 6:30 in the Wright Auditorium.
