Our Stories

Pre-Kindergarten Students Donate Mural to Children’s Hospital

June 15, 2018 by Hannah Seidel (Faculty and Staff) Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

Pre-Kindergarten students created a vibrant, large-scale mural which they donated to Children’s National Medical Center. The mural, titled “Teamwork, Love, and Togetherness,” was inspired by the artwork and social activism of Keith Haring. The donation to Children’s Hospital was inspired by the fact that in 1988, Keith Haring painted and displayed a mural on the White House lawn, which was then donated to the Children’s Hospital. The original painting has since been sold, but after hearing about the students’ project, the hospital’s Art Director invited MILTON’s Pre-Kindergartners to fill the space where the original mural once hung. The MILTON Pre-K mural will be on display for the next month in the main hospital building, in the “Young Expressions Gallery” on the second floor. After that, it will be moved to a permanent location in the Cardiac ICU.

The Pre-K students were excited to be able to help other children by donating the mural to the hospital. One young artist said, “I think by sending the mural to the children’s hospital, we’re sending them love.” Another student commented, “The children that have to go there can look at it and maybe forget that they’re hurt.” Another student hoped that seeing the mural “might make them feel brave.”

On June 14, the class went to the hospital for the unveiling of their completed work. They were joined by many members of our school community, including classroom parents and grandparents, MILTON administrators and staff, as well as members of the hospital community including Erin Gris (MILTON parent and Certified Child Life Specialist), Greg Scott (Gallery & Exhibition Coordinator, Creative & Therapeutic Arts Services), and Heather Stemas (Art Therapist). Along the way, the children were supported by MILTON community members who shared their expertise with the children.

The mural project was the result of months of collaboration, creativity, and effort by the children. The students posed for reference photos traced their projected outlines onto canvas, chose colors, painted, stretched the canvas onto frames, and much more in order to bring their project to life. The project built on the students’ yearlong study of various artists and genres, as well as their exploration of individual and group identity. Learn more about the projects in Pre-K in the first semester >