Three icons make up the Meador Park Neighborhood sign’s design. And three Jarrett Middle School students created it.
On April 4, Nina Musiyenko, Mabel Johnson and Faith Heffner presented their finished design for the new Meador Park Neighborhood sign to the Meador Park Neighborhood member Bobbi Ream. Months in the making, Jarrett art students collaborated to develop a design that best represented the neighborhood near the Battlefield Mall, said Reagan Lux, art teacher at Jarrett.
“Usually neighborhoods commission artists to do this sort of work, but they asked if there were artists here at Jarrett who would be up to the challenge,” said Lux. “We’ve been in contact with the Neighborhood Association since, and it’s been a lot of fun for our students.”
Lux asked students in her different art classes at Jarrett to discuss what symbols or images best represented the neighborhood. Three themes emerged, and three girls with a talent for visual design stepped forward to make the project their own.
“Honestly, I feel like I have a sense of purpose,” said Nina Musiynko, eighth-grader. “Usually you think when you’re doing art, you’re doing something insignificant or unimportant. But this will be affecting other generations and it will be standing there, helping not only me, but others.”
Having student artwork be displayed in the community is one goal of Lux’s as a first-year teacher at Jarrett. But when her artists get to connect their work with the community, it makes a difference, she says.
That’s why Jarrett is also hosting its first ever Pop-Up Art Show Friday, April 6, at 425 Downtown. More than 300 pieces of student artwork will be on display.
“For me, it’s very important for our students’ work be seen because they live here,” she says. “They live in downtown Springfield, and our arts community is growing downtown. We have all these galleries downtown featuring incredible artists, and I want to make sure our students are featured, too.”
The community is invited to attend the Jarrett Pop-Up Art Show Friday, April 6, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at 425 Downtown, located at 425 W. Walnut St.
As the contributing artists, Nina Musiyenko, Mabel Johnson and Faith Heffner were awarded $25 gift cards by a member of the Meador Park neighborhood, Karen Trigg. The local realtor also made a $25 donation to the Jarrett art department. The City of Springfield will receive the design this spring, which will begin the approval process to install signs featuring the student-made design.