By Forrest Sellers

fsellers@communitypress.com

Eighth-graders at Indian Hill Middle School are showing off their artistic talent.

A number of students with special needs have joined with their classmates in painting a mural which will be placed in the eighth-grade hallway.

A visit by Aaron Munninghoff, an artist with Visionaries and Voices, inspired the students. Visionaries and Voices is a Tristate art studio that supports artists with disabilities. The organization frequently sends artists to area schools.

“I felt my students had the potential to go (to the Visionaries and Voices studio) as an adult or even use the resources there,” said Lori Huon, an intervention specialist at the middle school who invited Visionaries and Voices to come to the school.

Munninghoff sketched the mural based on ideas submitted by the students.

The mural, which students painted on wooden panels, features a brightly colored row of lockers containing everything from a potted plant to an iPod. The students added their own creative flourishes ranging from a recycling logo to a crayfish seen in science class.

“It was kind of hard, but then I got into it,” said eighth-grader Emily Hellman of Indian Hill. “This got me interested in art.”

Hellman was responsible for painting some of the red lockers featured in the mural.

A total of 18 students participated. Munninghoff visited the school regularly to help with the project.

Indian Hill Middle School eighth-graders Samantha Belk, left, and Emily Hellman are among the students who painted a mural in cooperation with Visionaries and Voices. Also shown is Lori Huon, an intervention specialist at Indian Hill Middle School.