Artist Academy

Artist Academy Mural Meetup / Wheatland School, Wheatland, MO

As part of an Artist Academy mural meetup in Missouri, I joined a group of more than twenty muralists for hands-on training and collaborative installation work connected to Wheatland School in Wheatland, Missouri. The meetup blended instruction with real project experience, allowing us to learn mural techniques in an active, team-based environment before moving into live school installation work.

Training began at Andrea Ehrhardt’s studio in Rogersville, Missouri, where we worked with different tools and equipment, including two types of paint sprayers, and received boom lift training. From there, we moved into the live installation phase at Wheatland School, where we painted and installed two projects: the school’s W, an 8' x 10' polytab mural, and Athletics and Academics, an 8' x 25' painted mural completed directly on site in the school gym.

The W mural offered hands-on experience with the polytab method, including painting the mural on prepared material and adhering it to the wall with gel medium during installation. Athletics and Academics expanded that experience into a larger live-painted interior mural, giving the group the opportunity to work at scale in a real school setting. Together, the two projects reflected both the technical and collaborative sides of mural-making.

What made this meetup especially valuable was the way the training extended beyond the project immediately in front of us. I had just become OSHA certified for lift work in preparation for the Community Mural Institute (CMI) cohort, and the additional boom lift training during this meetup gave me even more confidence for the lift work I would soon be doing in Morganton, NC. Experiences like this remind me that mural training is never only for the project you are currently painting — it builds skills, confidence, and adaptability that carry forward into future walls, future teams, and future challenges.

What stayed with me most was the way the meetup bridged preparation and practice — from training with tools and lifts at the studio to standing in front of the wall and bringing the work to life as a team. It was a reminder that mural-making is as much about adaptability, trust, and shared momentum as it is about paint itself.

Title:
Wheatland W (8' h x 10' w)
Athletics & Academics (8' h x 25' w)
Site/City: Wheatland School, Wheatland, Missouri
Medium: interior latex paint. 
Materials: Interior latex, polytab, gel medium to adhere panels on wall.
Date: July 13-15, 2023