The 2019 Mural Exchange took us back to Costa Rica. Once again Murals Talk partnered with the Penn State Altoona Women's Soccer program to bring the magic of art back to the children of Costa Rica. This time around, however, we visited a school deep in the mountains and rain forest region of San Carlos. The school houses children up to the 8th grade and has 1 teacher for the entire school! YES! You read that correct!! Needless to say they do not have extensive arts programming and truly rely on outsiders to come and offer programs for them to express their creativity.
This project again started at the Juniata Gap Elementary School in Altoona, PA where students talked about Costa Rica and the term "PURA VIDA". This term literally translates to PURE LIFE and is a mantra that the Costa Rican people live by. We talked about how they take a very different approach to life challenges, often slowing down to reflect and re-center themselves, always being conscious of their individual well-being. Here in the US, however, we tend to power through with less concern for our individual well-being and more concern about how much we can get done, how fast we can do it, and with as few mistakes as possible!! We discussed how there are valuable life lessons in both approaches, and how we may be able to learn something from each other about better balancing our well-being with our approach to accomplishing tasks.
The term adopted from here which we shared with the children in San Carlos was "ROCK IT". This is the motto for the students at Juniata Gap and seemed to perfectly define how we live our daily lives, with the intent to work hard and strive always for perfection.
The students both in Altoona, PA and in San Carlos, CR both felt the need to work hard to accomplish our goals, and they both agreed that they should also consider their well-being in that process. They found bits in each other that they could adopt as part of themselves and created a mural full of life, nature, and love.
This project again started at the Juniata Gap Elementary School in Altoona, PA where students talked about Costa Rica and the term "PURA VIDA". This term literally translates to PURE LIFE and is a mantra that the Costa Rican people live by. We talked about how they take a very different approach to life challenges, often slowing down to reflect and re-center themselves, always being conscious of their individual well-being. Here in the US, however, we tend to power through with less concern for our individual well-being and more concern about how much we can get done, how fast we can do it, and with as few mistakes as possible!! We discussed how there are valuable life lessons in both approaches, and how we may be able to learn something from each other about better balancing our well-being with our approach to accomplishing tasks.
The term adopted from here which we shared with the children in San Carlos was "ROCK IT". This is the motto for the students at Juniata Gap and seemed to perfectly define how we live our daily lives, with the intent to work hard and strive always for perfection.
The students both in Altoona, PA and in San Carlos, CR both felt the need to work hard to accomplish our goals, and they both agreed that they should also consider their well-being in that process. They found bits in each other that they could adopt as part of themselves and created a mural full of life, nature, and love.
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How to support Murals Talk
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BY MAIL
Checks can be made payable to Murals Talk – CPCF and mailed to:
Murals Talk Foundation c/o Central PA Community Foundation 1331 11th Avenue Altoona, PA 16601 |
ONLINE
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Unless otherwise advised, CPCF will notify the Murals Talk Foundation of your donation and the amount.
More information about the CPCF can be found at www.centralpagives.org
More information about the CPCF can be found at www.centralpagives.org
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The Murals Talk Foundation is administered by the Central Pennsylvania Community Foundation.
For more information about the community foundation, visit www.centralpagives.org.
For more information about the community foundation, visit www.centralpagives.org.
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