Schools

Congress Park Unveils New Art at School Ceremony

La Grange Park-based artist, Becky Cortez, worked with students to create two murals for entryways at Congress Park Elementary.

Just before a light drizzle began to fall at on Tuesday, a crowd of young grade-schoolers cheered as two new murals were revealed over entryways at their school.

The kids, bundled up in coats and wearing their backpacks, talked excitedly to their classmates as their school day came to a close. Teachers led their students out to the sidewalk to watch the unveiling and the crowd wrapped around both sides of the corner at Raymond Avenue and Shields Avenue in Brookfield.

"When's it going to start," one student asked another as they smiled in anticipation. Teachers held up two fingers in the air to quiet the excitement.

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After a few false starts when excited kids began counting down from 10, Becky Cortez, a La Grange Park artist, took up the megaphone to say a few words to the group.

"Art is all around us, we just have to take the time to look," Cortez said to the crowd of hushed children.

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As the final countdown began, the cheers turned into a roar as paper sheets taped over the new murals were striped away. Mirrored pieces grouted above the entryways sparkled in the quickly fading light.

And then in was time for cupcakes and juice, donated from in Hinsdale.

The murals represent two themes for the school: "Who We Are" and "What We Do Here." The first focuses on the diversity of the student body, and the second on school and community pride.

Cortez worked with students in Congress Park's Eco Club to come up with ideas and symbols for the designs and then worked with the school's Art Club to come up with the images. Cortez took both to create the murals that now stand proudly above two of the school's entryways.

"It's like jewelry for our school," one parent commented to Cortez as the celebration wound down.

For Cortez, creating the murals was another welcome opportunity to work with students on art projects. She recently completed a mural that was four-years in the making at .

"It's their's now," Cortez said of the murals. "[The students] have a connection to it, because they helped in the creation of it. It's something that's tangible. Hopefully, they'll bring their kids back to show them what they did when they were at this school."

The murals were made possible by donations from the Salt Creek American Art Foundation and the Congress Park Parent Teacher Organization.


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