CHILDREN’S MURAL SENDS MESSAGE TO PLAZA PARK NEIGHBORHOOD

"It takes children to change a neighborhood." On Labor Day, children from the Plaza Park neighborhood put this to the test. They created and painted a mural that says, "Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Art."

There it stands. Four sides, each illustrating the message. Original designs were drawn by nearby Clearwater Academy Art Class, with art direction and supervision by Fine Artists  Susi Galloway, www.susigalloway.com and Sioux Hart, www.siouxhart.com

 
The mural was painted by neighborhood children during a Labor Day event in the park, a "pot luck" of music, dancing and food celebrating the end of the summer. The event was orchestrated by Elyse Aronson, known as the children’s storyteller, Mz Goose, the Modern Day Mother Goose, who lives in the neighborhood. Other organizations helped, especially Artists in Action, International, an organization with headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, and the up and coming Plaza Park Neighborhood Association. Also on hand were other local organizations, such as the Way to Happiness, the North Greenwood Neighborhood Coalition, Youth for Human Rights and the Drug Free Marshalls, who obtained pledges from participants to be drug free.

Last week, members of Clearwater Academy Art Class put the finishing touches on the mural under the guidance of their art teacher and muralist, Cara Dunning.

The mural will remain in the park, which on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Jones and Plaza Streets in Clearwater, until September 22nd. "I embarked on events in Plaza Park and this mural because I saw a park where few children played, so concerned were they that drug deals occurred in the park," says Aronson. "We are using art to say we want children to take back the park, so beautifully designed for them by the city."