Squares of vivid red, rich blue and bright pink adorn the typically blank, boring, monochrome walls that take students and visitors from Judd Hall to Gordon Parks Art Hall.

Anybody who walks through the hallway between Judd Hall and Gordon Parks Art Hall can thank Sunny Neater’s Mixed Media classes for this colorful new mural. The mural is inspired by the artwork of 1992 Lab graduate Amanda Williams.

“Ms. Williams asked her classmates to choose a color that they felt represented them,” Ms. Neater said. “So she painted side-by-side color panels as a portrait of each of her classmates and then installed them in the Corvus Gallery.”

Following in Ms. Williams’ footsteps, each student in Ms. Neater’s classes created a color that represents who they are to add to the mural. A code explaining each students’ color and its title will be installed nearby. 

Laboratory Schools Director Charlie Abelmann specifically requested that the mural be in the hallway leading into Gordon Parks. 

“As people enter the Arts Hall, there’s a sense of ‘This is an art space, inclusive of all the fine arts here at Lab,’” Ms. Neater said. 

A fourth-grade art class will also be collaborating with the Mixed Media class on the mural. 

“Gordon Parks is an arts hall, and by the end of a couple years’ time, it will be filled with art,” Mixed Media student Brent Pennington said. “We are just the beginning of many different people to come and fill this place.”