Ben Shahn mural brought to life through arts project

By Bob Fleming

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Kate Coffman and Dan Navarro perform a song written by sixth-grade students at the Roosevelt Public School as part of a project conducted with Arts for Anyone that took elements of the Ben Shahn Roosevelt Mural (pictured in the school lobby) and brought them to life.

Staff Writer

ROOSEVELT — Observance of National Holocaust Awareness Month took on special meaning for students at the Roosevelt Public School, who recently participated in an innovative arts project intended to reinforce their understanding of the founding of the community more than 60 years ago.

On May 18, Arts for Anyone, a nonprofit, cultural arts organization that uses various mediums of artistic expression in a classroom setting, gathered at the school to present a special program based on the mural painted on the main wall in the school lobby when it opened in 1937.

According to Dr. Dale Weinbach, chief school administrator, the entire community, both past and present, is well acquainted with the mural painted by Depression-era artist Ben Shahn, who settled in Jersey Homesteads, later renamed Roosevelt, when the community was established in the late 1930s.

"The mural is well known and symbolizes the rich past of the town’s history, from the arrival of immigrants from Europe in the 1930s, to working conditions in New York City factories and sweatshops, to dismal living conditions in tenements there, and the establishment of the community which came to be known as Roosevelt," Weinbach said. "Over the years, thousands of residents and visitors have entered the school and passed under the mural every day, perhaps not fully comprehending the significance it has in their lives."

Over a three-month period, the Arts for Anyone group visited the school to work with the kindergarten through sixth-grade pupils, helping them to pick characters from the mural and design a storyline around those characters to bring the mural to life, Weinbach said.

The project was funded through a grant from the Sunfield Foundation in Red Bank and a donation from the school PTA, according to Weinbach.

"During the course of the project, the students and their teachers met with composers and lyricists from the Arts for Anyone organization and incorporated the character storylines with musical interpretation for group presentation," Weinbach said. "The timing of the project was perfect in that it reinforced the theme of tolerance for others, which has been stressed throughout the school year in all classes."

Professional performers from the Arts for Anyone group took the students’ character creations and storylines, which were then set to music and presented by them in dramatic fashion, to all classes at the school, she added.

"The musical performances varied in style from folk music to opera to theater-type presentations, which captured the imagination of the students’ character creations," Weinbach said. "It really brought the characters in the Ben Shahn mural to life and made their experiences seem real."

Describing the daylong program as a "moving experience" for the staff and students, Weinbach said she believes everyone involved in the project will look at the mural day after day and appreciate its historical and cultural significance in the founding and development of the community.