May 27, 2017 3 min read

There’s more to the new mural at South Central Elementary School than meets the eye.

Fourth-grade students, guided by art teacher Laureen Trovato and fourth-grade teacher Brianna Conroy, created an interactive mural, based on Henri Matisse’s painting “The Thousand and One Nights,” that makes sounds.

The mural is part of the students’ yearlong exploration of art and its connection to literature, which culminated in an art show, “Once Upon a Time,” that celebrated fairy tales, fantasy, Medieval art and artists.

Fourth-graders Halle Lee and Mela Barnhart designed the mural, their rendition of Matisse’s colorful cut-out paper masterpiece, which the artist based on the Persian tale “Arabian Nights.” The story describes Scheherazade, who marries a sultan who weds a different woman every day and kills her the next morning as revenge for his first wife, who cheated on him. Every night, for 1,001 nights, Scheherazade tells him a captivating story, stopping before she finished the tale. Finally, the sultan falls in love with her and spares her.

“I wanted to tie the mural to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math), so I grabbed Mrs. Conroy to see if the mural could make different sounds,” said Trovato.

The students made it happen.

Using a program called Scratch, fourth-graders created and recorded their own sounds based on their interpretation of Matisse’s mural, and Lee and Barnhart used Makey Makey – a circuit board that enables people to turn everyday objects, like bananas or ice cubes, into a keyboard – to make the sounds when someone touches the mural.

Place your hand on a metal handprint, touch one of the metal dots on the mural, and you’ll hear a sound, such as thunder and lightning, followed by a scream.

Principal Michelle Tomicek said the elementary school’s mural and art show emphasizes the “art” in STEAM.

“The whole STEM/STEAM movement is very big, and I’m absolutely adamant that the art is added. The art must be included,” said Tomicek, noting South Central was selected to be a Code to the Future School starting in the fall, making it the only Pennsylvania elementary school to earn that designation.

First-grade students also made their own versions of the mural, which Matisse completed at the age of 81, when he was bedridden.

“It was a team effort,” said Trovato. “We couldn’t have done the mural, or the art show, without the support of a big group of people, including our student artists, the principal, our secretary, our custodian, the support staff, our teacher and our parents.

“It was the first time we ever tried it, and I was really happy with how the mural turned out. The kids were very excited. Now, I have to think about what to do next year.”