Students from Fife High School paint a mural on the wading pool at the Fife Swim Center. (Photos courtesy of the Fife Public Art Commission)
The Fife Swim Center’s two-foot deep wading pool has a new mural depicting sea life thanks to the work of the Fife High School Art Club and the Fife Arts Commission.
Fife Parks and Recreation Director Kurt Reuter and his staff had a problem. The wading pool needed a new paint job and he wanted something fun for kids. Reuter went to the Fife Arts Commission to see if the sixth-month-old group wanted to take the pool design on as a project.
The commission’s youngest member, Danielle Twichel, took on the challenge and brought it to her Art Club.
Art was born.
So that is what the gathering of some 10 high school art students set out to paint.
“They kind of gave us free reign on the design,” Twichel, a Fife High School sophomore, said, noting that while the students had joked about including a painting of the legendary Loch Ness monster, they opted for rubber ducks and smiling whales and other sea life instead. “We tried to be as friendly as possible.”
The mural marked two “firsts.” It is one of the few times the Art Club stepped outside the walls of the school to paint something off campus for the public to see, and it was the first project adopted by the city’s Arts Commission. The Art Club’s first public piece can be found on the walls of Louie G’s.
Expect more art to spring up around Fife soon. The most obvious arts appreciation effort will take shape this month now that the Arts Commission has selected five pieces that will be installed in public places for a year-long exhibit outside the Fife Museum and at City Hall and the Fife Library. The pieces were selected from about 20 submissions and will be sold later this year to provide seed money for next year’s selection.
It is an effort that will likely include more locations and more art as the 10-member commission moves into its second year of operation as the city's primary resource in matters of public art and culture.
Other commission members include: Jeanne Howe, Councilmember Dierdre Dukes-Gethers, Stelian Paraschiv, Robin Fisher, Linda Boitano, Mizu Sugimura, Bob Thornhill, Kendra Danielson and Anette Cree.
“They were just established and hit the ground running,” city spokeswoman Laurel Potter said. “They are always open to new ideas.”
