Throughout Hayes, there are six murals around the school in total, existing in both painted and tiled mediums. On top of that, the walls are also decorated with hundreds of half-filled bulletin boards and posters, as well as the large, glass art gallery in the 7000s hallway. Sounds like a lot, right? Even enough to be tacky? Believe it or not, though, there is actually a paling surplus of empty surfaces within the hallways.
Whether it’s unintentionally situated in singular spaces throughout the halls, or intentionally left open, the blankness is incredibly noticeable in many places of the school. For instance, all three of the extending corridors from the locker-filled lower language hallway, the main cafeteria, and many of the other inner hallways.
An overlooked problem: Hayes has so much more to offer and so much more potential to become more unified. There are nearly a hundred different clubs and extracurricular activities at the school, so why not get them involved in that way as well?
Not only would it spice up the walls and reduce the blank space into something brighter, but it would also memorialize them in Hayes’s history permanently.
At the high school, there is an extensive amount of artistic programs, both in musical and craft forms. That being said, it should come as a genuine surprise that we lack an immense amount of art on our walls.
A related aspect to consider is that memorabilia displays would remain on the walls forever, and they would also increase both morale and school spirit for everyone at Hayes.
Studies show that artwork can help to unify a school’s identity. Whether run openly, or alongside a specific course or program, those projects are shown to build a much stronger sense of community within social spaces.
While they hold their own communal charm, with the substantial amount of the same exact posters scattered throughout the building in certain odd places, as well as the contrasting empty spaces in others, there could also be so much more organization to avoid the bleakness in the hallways.
Additionally, banner blindness is a phenomenon in which people tend to ignore and not fully register the same thing once they see it hundreds of times.
This issue could be remedied by some simple cleanup, potentially putting some of those bulletin boards to rest or better use, and cutting down on posters, unveiling room for more students to have their artwork recognized, and restoring intrigue to the hallways.
Hayes has gone for a considerably long time without a communal art project, last year’s mural being the first in many. The walls need to be freshened up and filled with more excitement, color, and artwork, leaving a lasting and positive effect on everyone at Hayes.
