PS 371 Lillian Rashkis: The Places You'll Go

PS 371 Lillian Rashkis is a District 75 High School for students with special needs.  The students are ages 14-21 and the school’s goal is to help them become independent.  We worked with a group of fifteen students after school for fifteen weeks.  The mural is placed along the hallway that leads to both the cafeteria and the auditorium.  The mural’s theme, “The Places You’ll Go,” interprets students goals for the next year, including reading, traveling, getting their driver’s license, fishing, biking, and more.  

The mural design encompasses both physical and metaphorical traveling. The mural features students in fantastic adventure vehicles, inspired by one of the student’s artwork from the class, to represent physical travel. Additionally, two girls reading books symbolize mental escapism.

To highlight the places students aspire to go, the mural includes international landmarks from London, Spain, Australia, Indonesia, Italy, and Mexico, along with Sunset Park in Brooklyn. The mural also features a metaphorical landscape coming out of a book, including a forest, mountains, a lake with kids fishing, and a beach. When designing the mural, we asked students about their future goals, which inspired the imagery of the mural. Incorporating these ideas into the mural creates a sense of ownership and pride among the students, while also inspiring them to pursue their dreams and physically and metaphorically.