BRANDON, Vt. — Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union (RNESU) has been awarded grant funding from the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Community Fund to support the creation and installation of a school- and community-based mural at Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon, through a collaborative mural residency with Juniper Creative Arts, a Brandon-based collective known for youth-centered public art projects. 

The mural will transform the highly visible, 40-foot wide exterior wall of Neshobe Elementary School, which faces VT Route 73 in Forest Dale. Positioned as a visual gateway to the school and visible to residents and visitors traveling through the area, the artwork is intended to reflect youth voice, community pride, and a welcoming sense of belonging. 

Juniper Creative Arts’ work is a mosaic-style collaborative process in which each participant creates a small individual piece that becomes part of the larger mural. Juniper Creative Arts is an award-winning, Vermont-based family collective specializing in large-scale community murals. Their work emphasizes youth voice, cultural storytelling, collaboration, and belonging, shaping vibrant spaces to reflect diverse voices and stories within communities and to enrich lives and promote a deeper understanding of one another. They have completed dozens of public murals across Vermont.

Each Neshobe student will contribute a personal artistic element that will be incorporated into the final mural, ensuring broad participation while allowing every student to see themselves represented in the finished piece. 

Through a collaborative in-class residency from April 8 to 14, students will be guided by artists from Juniper Creative Arts to develop imagery inspired by their ideas, stories, and connections to place. The project is designed to engage students in the creative process while inviting the broader community to take part in shaping a welcoming visual landmark for the school.

This project is made possible through a partnership between Neshobe Elementary School, Juniper Creative Arts, Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, Rutland Area NAACP, the Neshobe Elementary PTO, and Naylor & Breen. Support for the project is provided in part by the Spark Connecting Community Program of the Vermont Community Foundation and the Animating Infrastructure Implementation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. 

A public unveiling celebration planned for early June.