The mural at Thompson Playground on Charles Street depicts two life paths.
One leads to a cemetery with dead trees, the end of the other path is a bright future with hopes of high school graduation and opening businesses.
These are the "Paths to Success," as painted by Waltham High School students this weekend. The outside-wall mural was designed during workshops with the Waltham Boys & Girls club and organized by a graduate seminar at Brandeis University.
"It was my class called Making Culture, and we partnered with Wayside working with (students) and we've been meeting with them every week," said Mark Auslander, academic director at Brandeis and the program's supervisor. "We've also been (creating magazines) and talking with them about art. They decided they wanted to do a mural and the mayor said 'great."'
Brandeis student Hannah Chalew helped the students realize their vision.
"We started talking about different issues they thought were important and they kept coming up with how they feel all of these restrictions and people not respecting them," Chalew said. "We started drawing this kid's declaration of independence with them signing a bill of rights. It reads 'We the kids of Waltham' and lists things they feel like they should get from their teachers and community."
Chalew, 21, a studio art and anthropology major from New Orleans, recently finished a semester abroad in which she taught youth in Haifa, Israel, how to paint murals.
"I was working with different groups of kids with lower income backgrounds painting murals in community spaces and early childhood centers," she said. "In Israel I was working with younger kids. They would make drawings but it wasn't conceptual. ... (This) was more about what they wanted ... and this is the park that they hang out and they thought it could use a mural."
Mario Pena teaches the after-school program at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club involved with painting the mural. The program is made up of about 10 Waltham High School students between the ages of 15 and 18.
Pena said he collaborated with Auslander on the project, who organized graduate students at the university to work with local youth on the concept of the mural once a week on Thursdays inside the club.
"We have a really strong relationship with Brandeis. ... This is what the kids thought of and it's some of the issues they are facing in the Waltham community," Pena said. "I know this took them a couple weeks or so to think of the idea and of what they wanted to do as part of this mural."
According to Pena, the mural project coincides perfectly with the mission of the Waltham Boys & Girls Club.
"We believe in having our teens participating in leadership programs," he said. "We strongly believe in giving our kids opportunities to be positive leaders and that's something that we are able to do with our relationship with Brandeis."
Brandeis University also partnered with Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, a nonprofit, human service agency that provides counseling. They provided a stipend for the youth to buy the materials necessary to create the mural.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com.
