In downtown Blue Springs there is a group called the Downtown Alive. The group received a grant to help revitalize downtown Blue Springs and create artwork on the sides of buildings.

Over this past summer, this group reached out to some of South’s art department and asked if they would gather students together to create murals around downtown Blue Springs.

South art students and alumni came together to make depictions of some of the historical pieces of Blue Springs. Some members from the Blue Springs Historical Society helped the art department out with ideas. It was mostly up to the artists to do further research and find pictures to go off of.

The most time-consuming part of the whole process was figuring out what the murals were going to be because they needed to be good historical pieces of Blue Springs.The four pictures they decided to paint were: The Burris Mill, the train depot that brought people to Blue Springs, Adams Dairy Dairy Farm, and the one-room school house.

The students who contributed to the paintings most were senior Olivia Smith, junior Lee Steiner, and senior Cassie Brown.

Smith was one of the biggest contributions to the Burris Mill mural.

“It was so much fun, and it was such an amazing thing to be a part of. I would jump at a chance to do it again,” Smith said.

Steiner helped out with the train depot mural and really enjoyed it.

“It was such a great opportunity and you could tell everyone there loved art and truly wanted to be there which made it even more enjoyable,” Steiner said.

Brown spent parts of her summer helping out with the Burris mill painting.

“I really enjoyed working with other artists and people who love painting and working on art. It was awesome being able to work on paintings that are almost life size. I would love to be a part of something like that again.” Brown said