Milwaukee High School of the Arts unveils mural to educate students about gun violence

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Milwaukee High School of the Arts unveiled a new mural May 30 intended to raise awareness about gun violence. Students designed the mural to educate their peers and create solutions through art and activism.
The creation of "This Is Not A Drill," was a collaboration between the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund and the the school's student-led club Artists Against Gun Violence, according to an MPS news release.
Student collaborators included lead organizer Izzy Polewski with Adriana Cruz, Andre Ceballo Olea, Catherine Kimbakimba, Ash Lawton, Eliott Stugard and Zach Boettner. The students were supported by MHSA visual art teachers Posy Knight and Julia Stacey, as well as other school and WAVE Educational Fund staff.
Students in the group began meeting weekly in January, Polewski said. Once the mural layout was decided upon, small groups designed different sections. Cruz then created a digital painting from the students' sketches and transferred it to a wall in the school's mini-park, where students spent March, April and May bringing the mural to life with acrylic paints.
"We worked so hard on this," Polewski said in a speech before the mural reveal. "All of us could not have created this without each other."
Polewski, who uses they/them pronouns, is a junior visual art major at the school and serves as the founder and president of the Artists Against Gun Violence club. They are also a member of the Youth Advisory Board at WAVE.
Polewski came up with the idea of the mural after their boss at WAVE asked them to find ways to reach out to the community and engage it in gun violence prevention.
Knight, the school's mural club adviser, said the mural developed through private conversations with students that created a sense of vulnerability with one another. She explained how hearing from students similar in age to the victims of mass school shootings like Columbine illustrated the atmosphere these students grew up in: one permeated with culture and conversation around gun violence.
"It's like that passion is coming from a visceral place," Knight said.
In speaking to the crowd at the mural's unveiling, Polewski said they think youth in Milwaukee have the biggest problem with gun violence. They said they know many students who know how to get a gun, and not many who feel safe from gun violence.
"You're all scared, and I think that's dumb," Polewski said. "My goal for tonight is to make other students realize just how dumb that is. I want students feeling empowered."
The students' mural is split into three sections, Polewski explained.
The first is dystopia, which represents the desensitization of the current gun violence climate. The section features a heart with bullet holes, a bullet shattering glass, a crow and a weeping woman's eyes staring as if "history is looking at us right now."
The middle section is rebellion, which features protest and methods of coping with gun violence. It includes a boom box "filled with music and love," a car with peace signs on it and a vigil to remember the lost.
Finally, the utopia section represents what Polewski said students want to see after the storm of gun violence. It features a dove, music and a bird feeding its chicks.
"We really want to represent peace and love and hope in that utopia section, but we also made sure to still include some signs that gun violence was a thing," Polewski said. "If you look super closely, you can find guns broken up with flowers growing out of them, like yes, if once we finish this fight, there will still be gun violence."
The mural unveiling ceremony, which was held outdoors in the school's mini-park, featured a general art gallery that rotates each academic term and an open mic for students after the reveal. A number of students participated in the open mic by performing reciting various literary works like poems.
Polewski said solutions to gun violence can happen through art and activism because creativity shows that anger doesn't always have to result in violence. Instead, acting with peace can create an effect.
"By activism through art, I think it's really all about education, like this helps educate us," Polewski said. "This helps show us what's happening, but also shows us what we can do."
Students and staff working on the mural were given a $250 budget from Principal Larry Farris and mainly used supplies donated by the school's art department, Knight said. She added that every contributor worked without pay in order to make the creation of the mural possible.
Knight called it an "epic effort" to scrape together sufficient funding for the mural project and find community members to support the artists' efforts. She said more resources should be available to schools to make positive changes through creative projects.
"Art is a vehicle for change because it creates empathy in the viewers, and it's something the mural does so well," Knight said.
Now, Knight is calling upon community members to support the efforts of local high schools and students who are creating art like the mural. She said one of the best ways to do this is by attending student showcases like theater productions and gallery nights to show students that the community cares about their works.
Knight said she felt hopeful seeing a number of community leaders show up to the event with genuine data and a call to action.
While Mayor Cavalier Johnson was not able to attend the event as originally planned, Milwaukee County Director of Community Outreach Kyle Ashley spoke to the crowd on his behalf.
Ashley said gun violence is now the leading cause of death for kids and teens in Wisconsin. He said this statistic is a call to action for adults and policymakers to invest in prevention and keep youth safe.
"This mural isn't just a painting, it's a statement," Johnson said. "It's a voice of young people refusing to be silent about the reality they live in every day."
Tyler Kelly, policy and engagement associate at WAVE, hosted a table at the mural unveiling. He said he was excited for the community to see how the mural conveys that gun violence is an unnatural and unacceptable issue.
"Having that reminder that gun violence is still happening, that it's wrong and we can do something about it, I think that has tremendous value to our young people," Kelly said.
MHSA's mural unveiling precedes Gun Violence Awareness Month in June. This year, National Gun Violence Awareness Day takes place June 7.
Contact Mia Thurow at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee High School of the Arts raises awareness about gun violence