Elizabeth Cobb Middle School in Tallahassee unveiled a wall-sized mural on Friday, September 25, created by Cobb students alongside members of the Knight Creative Communities Institute’s adult catalyst team. WFSU reported that the image celebrates the school and includes much of its history. Elizabeth Cobb opened in 1954, making it one of Leon County’s oldest schools. A second locally designed and executed artwork is now at Frank Nims Middle School on Tallahassee’s south side, part of the same week’s community-art effort.
The projects belong to WALL+A, KCCI’s Walls for Art, Learning, and Local Activation initiative. KCCI says the program is returning lasting public art to eight local school campuses, with an early focus on neighborhoods that lost their artistic crosswalks. The institute’s 2023 Crosswalks to Classrooms project used artwork to promote school pride, neighborhood identity and pedestrian safety. KCCI notes that the original crosswalk art is no longer in place; its current project brings school-centered artwork into campus spaces and nearby community corridors.
KCCI’s September 16 announcement set the two September workdays in motion. It scheduled Cobb SHINES for September 22, from noon to 4 p.m., at Miccosukee Road and Hillcrest Street, the site of the original Crosswalk to Classroom artwork. A community day at Nims followed on September 23, with campus beautification and live mural painting planned. KCCI invited residents to join the free activities. WFSU’s report confirms Cobb’s mural reveal two days after those events, on September 25.
At Cobb’s reveal, students and adult team members had a shared part in making the wall-sized image. WFSU reported that KCCI Executive Director Betsy Couch applauded the work during the ribbon cutting, while Principal Logan Crouch described the mural as a visible expression of the school’s connection to its neighboring community. He said the artwork could help students feel that the campus belongs to them and that the school is part of the place around it.
KCCI’s project page gives a fuller account of the work at Cobb. Community volunteers painted a new mural, the WALL+A team added two large artworks at the school entrance, and other areas received new landscaping. Professional muralist Amanda VanStratum and the Living Canvas Studio team contributed their expertise. KCCI also credited Eppes Decorating Center and other people who donated time and skills. The project was part of VyStar Credit Union’s Good is everywhere campaign and KCCI’s Placemaking Week.
At Nims, KCCI describes two painted areas: a new mural on the front entrance fence and a giant school-pride mural beside a popular campus thoroughfare. VyStar employees volunteered their time, alongside VanStratum and the Living Canvas Studio team. Eppes Decorating Center and other community contributors supplied help as well. WFSU independently reported that locally designed and executed artwork also adorns Nims, confirming that the school was part of the week’s broader rollout.
Cobb and Nims follow several other campus projects documented by KCCI. At Hartsfield Elementary, the institute says artwork once painted on a crosswalk now appears on a colorful windscreen running along a playground fence. At Sabal Palm Elementary, it describes a 100-foot mural assembled from 150 student artworks around the theme “Community Is Family.” Each child’s 12-by-12-inch piece became part of the larger fence installation. DeSoto Trail’s entrance mural was conceptualized by school leaders and designed by two Leon County high school students. KCCI describes it as a welcome mural measuring 8×12 feet showing students learning and playing. Those projects give context to KCCI’s plan to bring art to eight school campuses. KCCI says Hartsfield Principal John Olson noted that students who remembered painting the crosswalk were thrilled to see the same artwork return on the school fence.
KCCI says each campus project is developed with school leaders, parent-teacher organizations, students and community members so the artwork can reflect that school’s identity. At Cobb, WFSU connects the mural to the school’s history and community pride. At Nims, KCCI describes a front-entry fence mural and a large school-pride piece along a well-used campus path. The two schools’ new art came from separate volunteer days, but both projects put local creativity into the places where students learn and gather.
Reader responses