From colorful bottle cap flowers and soaring zendoodle birds to murals celebrating culture, identity, and community, students across Greenburgh Central School District’s elementary schools spent the year discovering that art has the power to transform both spaces and the people who create it.
For nearly two decades, ArtsWestchester resident artist Candace Winter has helped students understand that art is more than a finished product hanging on a wall. Through literature, collaborative projects, and creative exploration, she encourages students to experiment, tell stories, and find their own voice.
Earlier this year, students at Highview Elementary School created murals honoring Lunar New Year and Black History Month, drawing inspiration from the colors, patterns, and storytelling styles of contemporary and historical artists.
For the Lunar New Year mural, playful smiling flowers inspired by Takashi Murakami and the repeated patterns of Yayoi Kusama encouraged students to experiment with color, shape, and design. Lanterns filled with intricate details floated across vibrant backgrounds, while facts about Lunar New Year traditions framed the installation.
During Black History Month, students read Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold and created houses and cityscapes that reflected their own experiences, interests, and dreams. Inspired by Ringgold's storytelling approach and Tyree Guyton's community-centered public art, students reimagined their world through colorful neighborhoods and scenes of possibility.
Beneath a brightly patterned skyline, students illustrated themselves reaching, leaping, and soaring through the night sky. The imagery echoed both Tar Beach and the district's S.O.A.R. vision, inviting students to imagine futures shaped by possibility rather than limitation.
Together, the murals became more than classroom projects. As permanent installations in Highview’s second-grade hallway, they serve as living tributes to the history months they commemorate and reminders that every student has a story, a perspective, and a place within the larger community.
The same ideas of growth, individuality, and collaboration resurfaced this spring at Lee F. Jackson Elementary School through a schoolwide project inspired by Lois Ehlert's beloved children's book, Planting a Rainbow.
On Earth Day, Ms. Winter introduced students to the project with an environmental twist.
Kindergarten students designed a collaborative rainbow, while first graders created flowers inspired by Ehlert's bold cut-paper collage illustrations. Students drew their own flower designs before Ms. Winter transformed their artwork into wooden sculptures based on the children's original creations.
Students collected bottle caps at home, sorted them by color, and chose where each piece belonged before gluing them into place for Ms. Winter to secure to the wooden frames.
As students worked, they began offering artistic suggestions of their own.
"Maybe we should use black caps to put in the middle," suggested Dylan.
Diego was surprised to learn how much of the final display reflected students' ideas.
"I was really surprised that students made the other flowers," he said. "I was surprised that we were going to do it too!"
The bottle cap installations continue a recycling tradition Ms. Winter began in 2021. After recalling the approximately 7,000 screws used in the original courtyard installation, she laughed while counting nearly 100 bottle caps on a single flower. "I'm going to need more screws."
At R.J. Bailey Elementary School, sixth graders continued their tradition of leaving a creative mark before moving on to middle school, expanding the school's annual mandala project into a zendoodle-inspired celebration of transition. Drawing from the district's S.O.A.R. theme and falcon mascot, students transformed bird outlines into intricate works of art while collaborating on a painted landscape inspired by artist Alma Thomas.
"I wanted to continue the Zentangles, but I didn't want to do the same circle again," Ms. Winter explained. "The students love painting on the walls, and the mandala landscape worked well with birds flying. It's sixth grade—they're moving on to the next thing."
"It was a nice way to wind down after all the tests," said Devin, a sixth grader.
When asked how it feels to be soaring into middle school, Devin recognized how much he has grown during his time at R.J. Bailey.
"I've come a long way from the first time I came to Bailey," he said. "I used to think this building was intimidating, and now I'm going to an even bigger building. It's like a full circle moment."
"I'm excited to learn more things and take on new interests in middle school," he added.
As the school year comes to a close, the projects students created will remain behind. Murals will greet students in Highview's hallways, bottle cap flowers will brighten Lee F. Jackson, and mandalas and zendoodle birds will remind future sixth graders of those who came before them.
"Every flower is different," Ms. Winter said.
Part of the beauty of Greenburgh Central is that so are the students who created them.