BIS has a new mural!

During Bren Bataclan’s mural residency, every BIS student participated in a workshop where Bren taught them about his “Smile Project” where he leaves his paintings all over the world for people to find and take with them. In exchange, he simply asks for the recipients of his paintings to spread kindness. During the workshop, the students also learned how to draw characters in Bren’s style. He assigned each student a character to design for the mural. Bren then chose at least two students from every class and designed a mural using their characters.

The theme of the mural is unity and diversity, so students drew unique characters of the same kinds, i.e., some students all drew different kinds of fish, birds, houses, cars, etc. Each of the characters was combined with a symbol, i.e., hearts, peace signs, lightbulbs, paw prints, etc. Every character in the mural is completely unique and was painted as an exact (or very close to exact) replica of the students’ drawings. Bren painted the mural for the remainder of the week and had small meet and greets with students where they could observe and ask questions. All throughout the week, Bren gave away dozens of drawings of his characters to students. The mural celebrates diversity and encourages respect and kindness. It highlights the uniqueness of members of our school community. The experience was tremendously positive and uplifting for the whole school, students and staff alike. The mural is so bright and cheerful and quirky, viewers can’t help but smile when they see it.