Among the many highlights of any tour of the Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing) campus are our murals. Displayed around the school, these beautiful works of art are due in large part to our talented art teachers and the outside artists we periodically welcome into our school community through our Artist-in-Residence Programme. After adding yet another lovely mural to our collection this year, we spoke with Secondary Art teacher, Allison Cusato who oversaw its creation.

How did our latest mural come about?Seven Secondary Arts students joined the Arts Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) in January with the goal of designing and producing a mural.

Which students participated in making the mural?Jeongmin [Steve] Ryu (Year 8), Zuer [Elva] Zong (Year 8), Jaskiran Arora (Year 9), Yumin Choi (Year 9), Carolyn Hetherington (Year 9), Hyunji [Angela] Jin (Year 9), and Yoonji Jin (Year 9) all worked on it together.

How did you come up with the design for the mural?Steve, Elva, Jaskiran, Yumin, Carolyn, Hyunji and Yoonji began by brainstorming things that are important to little children. From there, they each came up with a design. Important elements from their sketches were combined to create one final design.

Can you describe the actual process of painting the outdoor mural?Sure. The students started the painting process by priming the wall. Then one student was appointed to draw the design onto the wall while the others gave helpful direction. Because it is an outdoor mural, some days were spent indoors waiting out poor weather and air. The students didn’t begin applying paint to the mural until the fourth CCA block of the year and carried out the finishing touches on the very last day of the Arts CCA.

Where is the mural, and why did you choose the location?The new mural is located over the sandbox in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) playground. We wanted to place it there to spark the imaginations of the ECE students.

At YCIS Beijing art plays an integral part in our curriculum, and we believe there is great value in introducing students to the arts as early as possible. Hopefully, the mural will inspire a new crop of students for me to teach in the years to come.

A celebration took place on June 17, 2019, to officially unveil the new mural to YCIS Beijing's ECE students. This event provided them an opportunity to thank the Secondary School students who created the mural for all of their hard work and dedication in producing this lovely new piece of outdoor art for them.