Ideas of freedom and American symbolism jumped around the room as art students sat in groups and discussing what they wanted to showcase on the walls of building eight.

After the history teachers in building eight contacted her, Drawing III teacher Brianna Peterson was notified about three potential areas for her students to create murals. Peterson saw this as an opportunity that she could not let her students pass up.

“What my students are doing has the ability to allow other students to develop an appreciation for art and the content,” Peterson said.

Although it has been a while, Peterson’s students are not the first ones to leave a mark in building eight. The class is actually replacing a mural that has been up since the 1990s.

“My students now have a chance to create three murals within this building that could be here for potentially decades,” Peterson said.

When thinking about what the murals should look like, Peterson told her class to think of subjects that are not only relevant now, but will be for the next few decades. Many students, like senior Naomi Brady, saw this as an opportunity to send a message using their art.

“We ended up coming up with three different ideas that would correlate with each other,” Brady said.

The three murals feature individualism, major reform movements and symbolic architecture in America.

Above everything else, the class is most excited about having a chance to leave an imprint on Bryant High School.

“It’s crazy that something we made with our own hands and minds gets to be showcased for anyone that walks in this building to see,” Brady said.

Even in the early stages, the murals have already received a large amount of positive feedback from other teachers and students.

“So far [the feedback] has been really positive,” Peterson said. “Our students are adding in historical and contemporary content that is not meant to create a political voice, but to show the reality of what’s going on historically and in the present.”