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FORT BRAGG, CA — A public art project was in progress on the aging chainlink fence bordering the alleyway next to Purity Market. This project will add to the City of Fort Bragg’s public murals plan. At least eight of the city’s alleyways now have finished products. This fence art artistically represents students’ creative ideas who attend Noyo High School, a separate, alternative education program for local high schoolers.

The art project will also fulfill a vital part of the school’s mission to immerse its students into the community at large. By its nature, public art is instantly available to everyone. Although incomplete at the time, curious people wandered by daily to interact with the students and support their efforts.

Financially supported by the Arts Council of Mendocino County and local artists, property owners, businesses, and organizations. Fort Bragg’s “The Alleyway Art Project” is directed by Lia Morsell, a board member of the Arts Council. Morsell took Noyo High School teacher Eric Forrester and his students on a tour of completed alleyway art as a wrap-up of a unit Forrester had just taught on art therapy and mental health.

Morsell offered the students the opportunity to take on the next available public art project involving Tyvek and chainlink fencing. The offer represented everything Forrester had developed over time with his students. They could artistically present their diversity to the community and become a visual inclusive part of it. Tyvek proved too difficult to obtain. Old banners would be just as weather-resistant and provide the color needed to enhance patterns.

The group was assigned to the fence marking the back of Purity Market’s parking lot. The Noyo High School students then designed ambitious, hand-worked patterns to be woven throughout 470 square feet of chain links. Even more challenging, the patterns were created with hand-cut strips of recycled banners donated with the help of Braggadoon Signs & Graphics in Fort Bragg.

None of the five students knew what chain link fence art looked like or how to design it. They have learned by doing. The art project became an example of the “Big Picture Learning” mission at the alternative school. “This project is a really big deal for students,” Forrester said. The students knew their goal was to create something for the public to enjoy. Also, they were experimenting with art as a form of communication, a new way to interact with others. Although teacher Eric Forrester began the project with fourteen volunteers, he headed a group of five who remained committed in the last two weeks.

“Big Picture Learning” posits an alternative schooling method for students seeking to be at the center of their learning. Students engage in the real world via internships, community projects, and part-time jobs. The school staff helps them design a curriculum around their interests. Of course, academic classes are also included in daily instruction. After graduation, students can continue their education through a federal program of courses designed to lead to meaningful employment and a living wage.

The students working on the project definitely had real-life experiences while working on their designs. Forrester noted that people are coming by to ask about the fence provided “instant feedback,” and “they are not constantly on their phones looking for feedback there.” The students have seen how a friendly local business can step in and provide materials to get them going. They learned what it takes in the way of effort, cooperation, and follow-through of classmates to get the hands-on work done. They also learned that not everyone appreciated the vision expressed in some of their art.

This art project remained in progress for a time, and students would return to work on it when they had the available time. Admirers were still regular visitors, but nights left the project vulnerable to interference from vandals. Unfortunately, the students returned one day to find one section of the fence stripped of its design, with the banner strips lying in a heap. Their teacher told them, “we’re not going to let it defeat us. We’re going to forge through.” The students saw the vandalism as someone’s response to the message woven into that section of fence. Someone had taken the time to rip away the banner strips for the “BLM” letters, referencing “Black Lives Matter.”

Cindy Acosta, who had worked on the project from the beginning, saw the vandalism as deliberate. “It was upsetting. It made me angry,” she said. “I don’t understand how people can do such a thing,” she added. She commented, “I think people should just mind their own business. If they don’t like something, they don’t have to do or say anything about it. They should just walk away.”

Acosta tried to make sense of the destructive behavior but remained unsettled from an experience counter to what the project represented to her classmates. “There are people out here like that,” she concluded. “You can’t really change their minds. I do think they should be capable of leaving things alone rather than destroying what we made,” she added.

Now she continued weaving strips through the chain links while her classmates worked on different designs farther down the fence line. Her artistic vision was a scene of the sun above steep mountains. Anyone walking by and glancing at the fence can now clearly see she accomplished her mission. In the vulnerable, open fencing area, Acosta has given the community a small part of herself woven with faith and deliberate care. Her classmates had done so as well.

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