BERLIN – Students at Berlin Intermediate School (BIS) this week began a two-week art project that will incorporate messages of kindness into the school and community.
On Monday, art teacher Stefanie McElhinny introduced her students to a pilot project that will have fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grader decorating rocks with positive and uplifting images inspired by Keith Haring artwork. The rocks will then be displayed for fellow students, staff and visitors to see.
“It ties in really nicely because our theme for this school year is kindness,” she said. “We are promoting kindness to ourselves and to others.”
McElhinny explained that the project is a twist on the Kindness Rocks Project, a global initiative that has both children and adults decorating rocks with positive messages and leaving them in their communities for others to find.
After hearing of several nearby communities partaking in the Kindness Rocks initiative, McElhinny said she decided to launch a similar pilot project in her classroom and reached out to Alexis Southward, owner of Little Dreamers Wellness Studio in Berlin, for help.
Since her studio started a local “Berlin Rocks!” project, Southward said she has seen an interest in the initiative grow and expressed her excitement for working with students at BIS to create their own rocks. Little Dreamers has purchased and donated the rocks that BIS students will use for the project.
“I thought it would be a really good way to promote random acts of kindness and spread art throughout the community,” she said.
Southward applauded McElhinny’s idea to marry the Kindness Rocks initiative with Haring’s artwork.
“Stefanie choosing Keith Haring is brilliant because he really believed that art belongs to everyone,” she said. “It really came together perfectly.”
McElhinny explained that images used in Haring’s work, including rudimentary people, dogs and dolphins, were used to convey friendship, loyalty, peace, happiness and love.
“The kids will get to design, in his style, their own characters onto these rocks,” she said. “The goal is to really promote and hone in on spreading kindness through the school and to our community as well.”
McElhinny said the school will temporarily place the rocks in an indoor rock garden at the building’s main entrance.
“Our administration has done a wonderful job redesigning the front of the school,” she said. “So it’s almost a school beatification project too.”
Afterwards, the students can take their rocks and place them in their community for others to find.
Until then, McElhinny said the students will spend two weeks sketching and painting Haring designs on their rocks. As part of the collaboration, Southward met with the students this week to explain the rock project and to demonstrate the painting process through templates and examples.
Southward said this will be the first time she has partnered with a local school for the Kindness Rocks project, but emphasized its importance.
“It teaches children that art doesn’t just exist in a classroom or museum,” she said. “Art is everywhere.”
