Thirty-two students from the A+ Unlimited Potential (A+UP) middle school recently took on the challenge of a colorful, larger-than-life collaboration: a mural for the Museum’s Cullen Sculpture Garden. This public art project is now on display as part of the wall that frames the construction of the new Glassell School of Art. The mural features students’ personalized paintings that are pieced together to create a larger work based on Paul Ranson’s Apple Tree with Red Fruit.

The students gathered inspiration from their personal backgrounds and current work, as well as from each other. Vincent Acosta (below) was driven to incorporate squiggly lines in his piece after learning about DNA in school. “During the process, I went through different patterns to find one that represented me,” he said.


Vincent Acosta and his panel

The mural helped the students learn how to paint monochromatically, as they were instructed to add texture, depth, and originality while maintaining a specific color scheme. The A+UP students were influenced by another one of their projects, Unlimited Potential: Inspired by Braque, which is on view at the MFAH all summer. You can see it in the exhibition A+rt Journeys in the Kinder Foundation Education Center Gallery. Both projects prompted students to create independent works of art that are reflections of themselves, while also working as a team.

Jason Moodie, the Museum’s studio and gallery programs manager, worked closely with the students. “You can still see the distinctive, individual person in each panel; each student put a little bit of themselves in it,” he said.

The unity and personality accurately reflect the A+UP program. “This is our school,” said Cicely Benoit, principal learning coach at A+UP.  

The mural is on view in the Cullen Sculpture Garden through September.


A+UP faculty and students, left to right: Cicely Benoit, principal learning coach; students Vincent Acosta, Zoe Atkinson, Liam Carlo, Stephanie Mendoza, Jáycee Jamison, and Nia Greene; Paul Castro, director of school performance.