2023 Artists in the Schools classroom sessions include Hawaiʻi School for the Deaf and Blind (HSDB) with teaching artist Rayna Bramer. Inspired by Sayoko Kay Mura’s “Hawaiian Images” ceramic mural on the HSDB school campus, students created ceramic art to learn fine arts elements and principles of design in order to better understand the art on their campus and within their community. Students incorporated deaf hand shapes within their work to reflect deaf culture.
About the artwork “Hawaiian Images”
“Hawaiian Images” was commissioned for the SFCA Art in Public Places Collection. To create the mural, Mura visited HSDB almost daily and taught 180 students to make small ceramic figures, with each child contributing one clay figure to the final mural. Figures included hale pili, airplanes, seashells, crabs, and a ʻukulele player. Mura worked with potter Duane Caringer to create an ocean and mountain background for the pieces made by students, and installed the mural in 1972 with advice from tilers at Honolulu Roofing Company. The background weighs about 750 pounds and the students pieces add an additional 100 pounds. The mural delights children at the school – blind students can run their hands over the mural and feel the various figures.
Sayoko Kay Mura was a ceramic artist and Professor of Art (ceramics and sculpture) at Leeward Community College 1973-2009.
About the Artists in the Schools (AITS) program
AITS arts residency grants provide engaging, creative, and fun learning experiences for State of Hawaiʻi Department of Education public and charter schools through residencies with qualified, trained teaching artists from the Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster. Many of these teaching artists integrate their art form with other core curriculum areas, such as language arts, math, social studies, and science, meeting both Fine Arts and other core standards. Learn more about the AITS program on the SFCA website: SFCA.hawaii.gov/aits.