On Wednesday, February 28, Warren Street Elementary School hosted a ceremony to unveil its new Adirondack Ecosystem Mural, a hand-painted delight to the eyes and imagination by Warren Street 1:1 aide and artist Christine Van Valkenburg. The ceremony, complete with “bug” juice and s’mores to compliment the Adirondack theme, saw a large crowd of enthused guests, including District Superintendent Whelan, Assistant Superintendent Sullivan, Warren Street and district administration and faculty, students and community members.

The mural began as a PTA meeting discussion regarding a re-beautification project at Warren Street School. It was at this meeting where the idea for a mural came to life and quickly became a plan.

From there Christine worked on ideas with faculty members and staff. It was agreed that the mural should not be trendy, but something that would be educational, help the students in some way, as well as enhance the image of the front lobby. Hence, the Adirondack Ecosystem Mural was born.

Of the mural’s subject matter, Mrs. VanValkenburg said, "I really wanted to have the kids have an early appreciation for this great area we live in. It's our backyard. Hopefully, it's something they remember down the road.”

In order to create a unique and meaningful mural for the students at Warren Street, Christine spent numerous hours researching the different types of creatures that inhabit the Adirondacks. She spent time in the library researching and picking out books with pictures of different wildlife.

On October 14, the work on the mural began. Christine's canvas was 28 ½ feet by 9 feet tall, so in order to keep the mural a surprise to the students the notorious, "Blue Tarp," had to be hung up. It was interesting to hear students speculate different reasons for the tarp, noted Warren Street Principal Anne Christiano. “Some questions included, ‘Is the roof leaking?’ but over time, the students started to become familiar with the tarp and became filled with anticipation.”

Christine donated literally hundreds of hours on the mural, 350 hours to be exact. Mrs. Christiano said that Christine was ever-present on weekends over the last few months. “Most noticeable would be her paint cart and her music box,” Mrs. Christiano stated. “One thing you may not know about Christine is that she likes to paint to really loud music... she says that it relaxes her!”

Of all of her hard work, Mrs. VanValkenburg said, "It was a lot of weekends, a lot of late nights. When you love what you do, being here, it's worth it," said Van Valkenburg.

Christine may be reached at (518) 762-2556 for anyone interested in her work as an artist.

Enjoy More Photos From the Mural Unveiling...