Merrimac Elementary School students in Jenna Motroni’s art class recently participated in an activity inspired by artist Faith Ringgold and her mixed media quilt paintings.

As part of the activity students learned about the artist’s life, artwork and discussed the element of unity in art. The class then discussed the multiple meanings of the word unity and how one meaning is a connection between a group of people. Students linked this idea of unity to how they felt about this year in school, discussed how things felt different and how they physically weren’t able to meet together as a school community like in years past.

Using students’ unique artistic creations, Jenna Motroni created a new type of connection, a unity mural, throughout the school community by joining each individual student art piece to create a collage out of various colors of construction paper.