For more than a decade, the mural in the downstairs hallway of Bellwood-Antis High School in Bellwood, Pennsylvania, has stood as a colorful tribute to the school’s athletes. Painted in 2013 by Tori Thomas, it became a familiar sight for students passing through year after year.
Mural at Summit H.S., Phoenix (cobalt123/Flickr Creative Commons)But this fall, reports Nolan Clouse in the school’s student newspaper, art teacher Leah McNaul and her students decided it was time for a change. With brushes in hand, they’re replacing the sports-themed image with a new design that depicts the journey from kindergarten to graduation, symbolized by a child morphing into a senior and a spiraling fish showing how classmates grow together.
The decision to refresh the mural reflects a larger truth about traditions: they inspire, but they can also grow stale if left untouched. Organizations of every kind — from corporations bringing in new leadership to a nation choosing a new president every four years — recognize the value of renewal. It’s not a rejection of the past but a recognition that each generation deserves to see itself reflected in the present. As Ms McNaul put it, the project is in the hands of high school students because they “get the vision.”
Literature and philosophy have long echoed the same idea. Tennyson, in Idylls of the King, wrote: “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, / And God fulfills himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” Traditions are precious, but they shouldn’t be preserved so rigidly that they lose relevance. By refreshing a familiar wall, Bellwood-Antis students are ensuring that the school’s creative spirit remains alive and meaningful for the next decade.
For those who once found meaning in the old mural, it will remain a memory of their own time in the halls. For today’s students, the new design will speak to their journey, reminding them that growth and change are constants. In that way, the mural serves both as art and as a lesson: traditions endure best when they make room for renewal.
