Kewanee history will figuratively come to life Saturday when Kewanee High and Central School students reenact the figures from Kewanee’s past depicted in 15 murals. The murals were painted 10 years ago on downtown buildings during a week-long visit by more than 200 Walldogs artists.
One of the culminating events of the visit was an invitation to the public to stroll from mural to mural on the final evening of the event while volunteer actors stationed at each mural re-enacted the characters of events illustrated in the painting. Since then, five more Walldogs murals have been added to the outdoor art gallery but organizing tours during the Prairie Chicken Arts Festival, which began the following year, in part, to call attention to the murals hasn’t proven successful.
Hayracks, school buses and pamphlets for walking tours have been used successfully, but seeing and learning the story behind all 20 murals can take up to an hour. The PCAF Committee wanted to do something special for the 10th anniversary of the historic representations that would create a one-stop tour of the murals.
That’s where the 21st Century Learning Center program, a federal grant partnership between the Regional Office of Education for Bureau, Henry & Stark Counties and the Kewanee School District, comes in. The grant funds the Before/After School Program at Kewanee High School and the Steamers Success Before/After School Program at Central School, which were looking for a summer program for students in fourth through 12th grades.
KHS English teacher Heather Olalde, who has directed a long list of outstanding musicals at the school, came up with the idea of a summer theater camp and Ariel Byerly, Before/After School Program Coordinator, set up a two-week Central Summer Theatre Camp in June.
Retired KHS art teacher, Sue Blake, a member of the PCAF Committee, suggested they combine the two age groups and work together to create something that would present all 15 murals in one place where people could come and see them and hear their stories. Thus, “Murals Come to Life” was born.
High school students worked with fourth through eighth graders on developing the characters based on information from the Kewanee Historical Society. Laying out the plan during the camp in June, rehearsals were held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week at Steamer Gym to put the presentations together. They came up with appropriate props, from a motorcycle jacket worn by motorcycling legend Roger Reiman, to a pair of gloves made by Boss Mfg. and for everyone from world-famous author Randall Parrish to Clara Dossche, the 19-year-old girl who worked at Walworth, and was chosen to christen the “S.S. Kewanee,” a government freighter built with parts made at the Kewanee plant, in 1919.
Mrs. Olalde explained that the re-enactments will be performed in front of representations of each mural, some by individual students, others by a high school student working with a Central student. She said “Murals Come to Life” is a way to include another form of art — theater— in the festival.
The performance will be presented at 2 pm, Saturday, July 22 in the Rotary tent during the Prairie Chicken Arts Festival.
