New mural, painted by students, is music to their eyes

It's not easy turning sounds into a picture. It can be especially difficult for elementary school students.

But that is what David Mc-Shane and the Mural Arts Program are doing, with sponsorship by WXPN.

McShane, the mural program and the public-radio station are partnering to create a mural that evokes the experience of listening to WXPN's children's program, "Kids Corner."

And to help paint the mural, they enlisted the help of five public and private schools. The schools, chosen by lottery, pick 10 to 15 students to help paint portions of the canvas.

"I've been trying to make a picture of what sound looks like," said McShane, who has completed about 70 projects in his 15 years with the mural program.

His design features a retro-looking boombox with bubbles blaring from the speakers.

McShane and his partners have been going around to the five schools and supervising the students while they paint large panels of canvas, which will be glued onto a brick wall in West Philly.

On Wednesday, the group was at Penn Alexander School, across from a CVS store at 43rd and Locust streets where the mural will be placed. A dozen fourth- and fifth-grade students focused intently on the canvas, painting in the stripes and blocks of McShane's design.

The students could visualize the outcome of their labor, not just on the canvas before them. Across the street, the bland brick wall of CVS will display their handiwork next month, if all goes according to plan.

"Kids Corner" programming, which McShane termed as anything "from the weather to science and nature and computers," is depicted in the mural design by a snowflake, a robot, a dinosaur and other elements.

Other bubbles remain empty for now, but will showcase what may be most unique about this mural: about a dozen of the students' drawings. This way, their own designs will be a part of McShane's piece. When completed, the mural will take its place among almost 3,000 others in the city.

"It's kind of like thought-bubbles of the ideas kids get after they listen to the show," McShane said. Those ideas will complete the transformation of the "Kids Corner" show from sounds heard over the radio to a picture they and everyone else can see.