Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010

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Dixie fifth-graders created a 16-foot mural illustrating familiar folktales in different cultures.

Fifth-graders at Dixie Elementary Magnet School have spent a week exploring music, dance, art and drama during their very own on-campus Appalachian Festival.

“We’ve got all four art forms going, so there’s something for everyone to excel at,” said artist-in-residence Jennifer Rose of Berea.

“I want them to know more about their heritage,” she said. “Having a kinesthetic experience in Kentucky history will help them appreciate it.”

Rose and her husband, Alfredo Escobar, worked alongside students as they learned to play the dulcimer and painted a 4x16-foot mural of traditional folktales. In the end, the fifth-graders presented a schoolwide performance on how the arts connect diverse cultures.

During the mural project, Escobar talked about how similar tales develop in different countries, such as “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Paco and the Giant Chile Plant,” which the kids illustrated with characters emerging out of a huge storybook.

“We all have stories that tell about our histories, our cultures,” said Escobar, a native of Chile. “They all have a hero, an antagonist, a climax. The stories are (generally) the same scenario: Good wins over evil.”

The mural also included a mirror with an African-American child seeing a Hispanic child as his reflection. “Whatever he does, he sees the Mexican boy doing the same thing,” explained 10-year-old Scott Ethridge.

In pairs, the students carefully filled in the colors of Escobar’s outline sketches as Latin music played in the background. Some also came to the art room during their lunch break to work on the mural, and classes of younger students occasionally dropped by for a glimpse of the activity.

As the week progressed, the fifth-graders evolved from tentative observers to active designers and proud artists.

“Anybody can express themselves through art,” said fifth-grader Brian Tribble.

Brian and classmate Kallie Hellard also enjoyed the folk dances, especially tracing the history and progression of the dance styles from Scotland to England to Colonial America to Appalachia. Two of Kallie’s favorites were the Kentucky mixer and the Virginia reel.

“The colonists, when they broke away, didn’t want to lose (the reel) so they just changed the name,” Brian explained. “They didn’t like Britain, but they still liked the dance.”