Throughout my years of teaching art, I’ve often seen that students who have significant school pride are highly engaged and active in their school community. They are proud of their school and this shows in their work ethic, learning enthusiasm, and the relationships they build with their peers and school staff.
As an art teacher, I’ve explored a few projects that help to promote school pride in my students artists. I found that investing time into these projects were appreciated by the school staff as well because they really helped to build a sense of community. Here are a few of my favorite:
#1- Collaborative School Logo Quilt
My students had a lot of fun making this project and definitely felt connected to the school while working on it. For a project like this, we divided our school’s logo into a grid system (see my post here about creating digital grids). Then, each student created a different section of the logo. I encouraged students to use whatever medium and art style they would like. The variety showed all the different personalities at our school coming together in a unified way, like a collective quilt. The only “rule” was that the original black logo lines had to stay dark and visible to make the final product visually connect.
#2- School Logo Coloring Contest
Granted, it helps to have a pretty cool school logo but this is a fun project that can be applied to all ages K-12. First, you will need a simplified version of your school logo- preferably black and white with clean lines. Below is an example of (1) the simplified school logo I presented to my students and (2) the winning re-design logo created by a super talented 8th grade artist whose digital drawing skills were a-mazing!
My middle school students were pretty tech savvy after having lots of art instruction with a program called Kleki, so I challenged them to do this project digitally. Here is the video tutorial I gave them to get them going on the project and it shows some step by step methods of how to use Kleki to create the layers.…
Here is a video collage showing some of the results the students submitted. They really did a great job on this project, and I love how different each logo is.
Another option with this project is to print out school logo coloring pages and invite students to redesign the logo with any art tools, colors, and expressive mark making they’d like.
#3- School pride t-shirt design
What says I love my school more than wearing your school tshirt? Okay, a few things but getting students involved in designing a school shirt is a great way to get students building school pride and developing artistic skills. Also, this could double as a fundraiser for your art program and build school pride all in one! You could sell the winning t-shirt design and proceeds could go to your art program. It’s a win-win!
As a testament to something as simple as a tshirt being evidence of school pride, here is my own collection of all the sentimental t-shirts I have…
For t-shirts, I typically order from a t-shirt printing company who are often very willing to give you a discounted educational price. Recently, though, I went super DIY and ordered Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Ink, 8-Ounce, Black. I used a stencil brush and pressed this ink through a stencil onto the t-shirt. They turned out amazing and the ink the ink has held up over time. I definitely recommend it if you are trying to save money on some school t-shirts.
#4- Mural painting on campus
When students are involved in painting a mural that will be memorialized at the school for years to come, they feel so connected to the walls of the school. I had graduated students return to visit and loved seeing their mural on the walls of their old school.
Encourage students to brainstorm, plan, format and complete the mural as independently as they can [and as much as you are comfortable with]. This will give them enhanced pride in their creation and grow connection to the school.
#5- Around the school observation drawings
Creating observation drawings of places around the school that mean something to students is a great way to foster nostalgia and pride for your school. My high school student artists really loved getting out of the art room to find a place in the school that was significant to them.
Here are some examples of my high school students’ observational drawings of places around the school:
Thanks for reading! I hope you’ve been inspired by these projects to help promote school pride in your students through art projects. Feel free to share your thoughts, experiences, and more! I’d love to hear from you.