During the Spring of 2001 I collaborated with artist Christina Bechstein on a project with the Boston Schoolyard Initiative to develop a series of Banners for the Emerson Elementary School in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

In 2000, the Boston Schoolyard Initiative received over $2,000,000 in funds to spearhead a schoolyard initiative that would be implemented at elementary schools in the most economically challenged areas throughout the Boston public school district.

The goal of the schoolyard initiative is to transform public schoolyards into places of learning. Through a collaborative process with the host community, we engaged the students at the Emerson school in a public art project.

My role as a graphic designer was to work with the fifth grade class to develop banners that would be placed around the playground. We began with a series of workshops to inform our understanding of the community. The students created an initial vocabulary of graphic forms that I translated to produce 24 banners that were placed around the schoolyard.

Students were guided in
1. Identifying key concepts about the community.
2. Creating models of the banners.
3. Making presentations to the community.

Working closely with the fifth grade teachers, school administration, people from the local community and the funders allowed for an inclusive process. The banners were installed in a ceremony where the students and the community came together with the Mayor to note the marking of the schoolyard as a significant space of learning. The Emerson school site has been recognized as an example of a community coming together to enrich the learning environment for children. I developed a booklet outlining the project so that the process could be duplicated in the future. Over 100 more elementary schoolyard sites in Boston have been identified by the Schoolyard Initiative.