Estabrook Elementary School art teacher Stacy Schwartz has been working for the past seven years to fill the Ypsilanti school’s walls with custom murals and artwork. Her latest piece, a mural that wraps around an entire hallway near the school’s main entrance, is Schwartz's attempt to encourage students to read more and see themselves represented in books. 

The mural project, which Schwartz has called "Reading Can Take You Places," features several characters from children’s literature and comic books. Some characters were chosen from her own research, and some were suggested by students or faculty members. Schwartz explains that she made mindful choices about which characters to feature, making sure to include characters of various ethnicities, backgrounds, and abilities to reflect the diversity of Estabrook’s population. While the piece is still in progress, she says that the final character in the piece will be a grizzly bear reading a book, representing the school’s mascot. 

Rylee BarnsdaleStacy Schwartz's mural, "Reading Can Take You Places," at Estabrook Elementary School.
"There are books out there for everybody," Schwartz says. "With this project, I want to make sure no matter what demographic a student comes from, they’ll find something inspiring on the wall and then look for it in their library."

The project has also allowed Schwartz to reconnect to her roots as a professional muralist.

"I used to do murals full-time before teaching. Doing my art fulfills me the most," she says. "I like teaching a lot, but I wanted to make sure if I did something with education that I would still have the joy of making art – if not full-time, then part-time."

Rylee BarnsdaleStacy Schwartz's mural, "Reading Can Take You Places," at Estabrook Elementary School.
"Reading Can Take You Places" is not Schwartz’s first painting project during her time teaching at Estabrook. She decorates the school's hallways with large paintings in honor of Black History Month each year, working with the school’s music department to complete each painting over the course of a school concert. She also spent this past summer painting the Estabrook school library, turning the space into a cozy "forest." The library includes animals in pillars painted to look like trees, and a sunken reading area Schwartz calls "the pond," which she worked on with students attending summer day camp at the school. She notes that while her colleagues and other students appreciate and enjoy seeing “Reading Can Take You Places” grow over time, her work in the school’s halls has garnered her a kind of reputation with the school population.

Rylee BarnsdaleStacy Schwartz's mural, "Reading Can Take You Places," at Estabrook Elementary School.
"Some people ask when am I going to finish. Some people say ‘she’s been at it again’ when they see me working on it," Schwartz laughs. "Everyone here knows that the longer I’m here, there won’t be a single wall space left untouched."

Schwartz says her goal is "to make sure every wall in this school has been beautified, if not by me then by others."

"I want to see the kids enjoy their environment, and anyway I can give that to them, I’d like to do that," she says.

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Photos by Rylee Barnsdale.