 |  | Artist: Tomie Arai
Title: Morse School Mural
Date: 1999
Materials: Acrylic on birch
Dimensions: 8' x 16' When Arai was asked to create a mural as part of the school renovation, she chose to show the school's rich culture through historical and natural elements culled from the neighborhood. Near the horizon, she introduced the old Morse School and other buildings of historic Cambridgeport. The cultural diversity of the students is suggested through the biodiversity of the nearby Charles River and a band of traditional designs from different countries. A large central image of the Tree-of-Knowledge represents the school's innovative Core Knowledge curriculum.
A third-generation Japanese American, Arai focuses her work on three central themes: the
immigrant experience, cultural identity, and the role of memory A lifelong resident of New York, she has worked collaboratively with community groups for over twenty years and serves on the boards of the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas and the Coast to Coast Women Artists of Color Organization. |
 | | Artists: Juliet and Gyorgy Kepes
Title: Morse School Murals When the Morse School was built, architect Carl Koch commissioned well known Cambridge artists Juliet and Gyorgy Kepes to design bold art panels for the hallways of the school. The Kepeses experimented with color and design, scooping granular pigments from big buckets onto metal sheets, making patterns by pressing leaves into the colors, then shoving the test pieces into enormous ovens heated to 2000 degrees. After long hours of experimentation, the artists created the five bird and tree designs, which are on view in the primary wing of the school.
Born in Hungary, Gyorgy began his career as a painter but turned to photography and filmmaking. He is perhaps best known as the founder of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies. Juliet was born in England and worked as a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist, and is highly acclaimed for her beautifully illustrated children's books. |
