Decked out in smocks and hats March 7, students from 脡cole Desrochers added their own personal touches to a giant mural that has been painted on by more than 85,000 Francophone students across Canada and the United States.
The art project, created by Quebec artist Jean-Pierre Arcand, is called the Francoderole. It is the largest children鈥檚 painting in the world, and is meant to be a unifying project for children throughout the international Francophonie.
According to Arcand, who started the project 12 years ago, the mural is now 70 feet high by 540 feet long and to display it in its entirety, he would need a National Hockey League-sized arena.
With him in Jasper last week was only one per cent of the painting and already that covered half of the multi-purpose hall at the Jasper Activity Centre.
Jasper鈥檚 addition to the Francoderole came from a group of students between the ages of nine and 12, who were broken up into four groups. Each group chose a subject to paint and then researched it until they had an idea of how to represent it.
One group painted the current 脡cole Desrochers building, along with a portrait of Louis Desrochers, who the school is named after. Another group painted images of skiers at Marmot Basin to represent the idea that the students are 鈥淔rancophone everywhere they go,鈥� said H茅l猫ne Gendron, principal of 脡cole Desrochers.
Gendron was in the hall with the students much of the day, assisting them in their work. She said it was exciting to see how passionate the students were as they worked on their paintings.
鈥淭he kids were so enthused about it that they asked to stay the lunch hour to keep working,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was pretty cool.鈥�
As well as the Francoderole, which is now travelling around to each Francophone school in Alberta, Arcand had students from the entire school create a mural that will stay in Jasper.
That mural, which was started by the school鈥檚 youngest students who used their hands to paint the sky and the mountains, depicts Jasper. It has the new high school that is currently being built, the Anglican Church, the Curly Phillips Boathouse on Maligne Lake, mountains, houses and dozens of smiling people holding hands.
Gendron said she isn鈥檛 sure where it will hang yet, but she looks forward to finding a place in the new school.
鈥淲e will have to find a good spot for it.鈥�
Nicole Veerman
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