City High Best Buddies participants use art to showcase the diversity within the club. In the summer of 2017, seniors Sarah Nuñez and Molly Brennon attended the Best Buddies Leadership Conference based in Indiana. They attended workshops with other Best Buddies members from various states, and came up with the idea of using art projects to spread awareness of the Best Buddies program.

Brennon and Nuñez approached Mr. Bacon with the idea of creating a mural within City High. With Bacon’s approval, Nuñez then invited Best Buddies participants Kawther Rouabhi ‘18 and Jameson Reineke ‘18 to help her design and create the mural. Bacon gave them $100-600 for art supplies. They also enlisted help from City art teacher, Dan Peterson, who provided them with further supplies and assistance.

“We decided to go with an abstract theme for the mural because Best Buddies is so diverse with so many different types of people involved. The faces are unique just like the club, and it brings so many different kinds of people together that you wouldn’t see in a typical classroom setting,” said Nuñez. “We figure with an abstract mural people will be able to interpret the design however they want depending on what they think Best Buddies represents.”

“Each face has a different color to show how fun and exciting and different Best Buddies is,” said Reineke.

It took about a month to decide what the design would be, trying to keep the mural as professional as possible with help from Peterson.

“He’s been a great help artistically, just helping us figure out what we wanted and how to make it happen,” Rouabhi said. “We appreciate his help very much.”

The girls decided to paint the mural on the wall leading into the cafeteria. They started painting over winter break, and have since then tried to have at least one of them working on it every day.

“The whole space we’re using gives lots of opportunity for people and clubs to put more murals and designs up. It’s a colorful entrance into the cafeteria and people can see all the different clubs that are open at City High,” said Reineke.

“This project and club as a whole is about showcasing the beauty within all of our students,” said Rouabhi. “The students who are a part of Best Buddies make it such a powerful force in our student body.”

They don’t have any plans yet for future art projects once they finish the mural, but Best Buddies is hosting a friendship walk in April where buddies are paired up to create art that is then sold into the community.

“It’s a fun way to spend time with the buddies, and with the little time school gives us to do things we enjoy, this project is a nice way to incorporate art into Best Buddies,” said Nuñez.