Pike Lake Elementary Kindergarten Center
Cafeteria: 15 feet X 30Feet . House Paint on Wall. Double Click on Pictures to Enlarge

Sally Gibson, long time Mounds View Art teacher and professor (and three time Art Teacher of Minnesota) was commissioned to design an environment for the four school Pike Lake Kindergarten Center.

Gibson invited Dr. Barbara Bridges, professor  and long time art teacher (and three time Art Teacher of Minnesota) to create several murals.

The pair, who train teachers for Bemidji State University,  developed Gibson’s theme which merged the four colors assigned to the schools into several colorful metaphors for the kindergarteners to deconstruct.

Bridges, who teaches Human Relations, encourages her students to reject the melting pot metaphor for ethnic and cultural integration and embrace the quilt concept. She encourages us to keep the colors, textures and patterns of our individual worldviews and work collaboratively to create a unified whole.
The large fish appearing in the cafeteria will be the first of a work in progress as Gibson meets state standards by assigning her high school ALC students to design and paint new residents of the fish bowl.

Hallway  8 feet X 60 feet. House paint on Wall

Bridges and Gibson design the hallway to provide art projects from the four schools. The colors then flow under the hall to join together in a phantasmagorical fountain combining the four colors to create the rich visual metaphor they hope will transfer to the goal of developing one community of five and six year olds.