*Re-published article by Pamela Knudson, Grand Forks Herald (April 2025)
THOMPSON, North Dakota – Two bland, boring and beige walls that intersect in a corner of the Thompson Public School lunchroom have come alive with brilliantly-colored images and positive words of hope and encouragement.
It’s the culmination of an art mural project that students imagined, painted and brought to life under the guidance of Trey Everett, a professional artist from Crookston who recently completed five days as an artist-in-residence at the school, supported by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
The project, which involved about 25 students, is an offshoot of the Sources of Strength program, funded by a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield. It has been initiated to promote positivity in the school environment.
“(The mural) shows littler kids that you can be all these things when you grow up,” said Emma Theisen, an eighth-grader. “It’s something you can look at every day and smile.”
Theisen, 14, contributed the design for the “tree of life,” a centerpiece of the mural, she said, “and the sun and clouds are mine.” “I just like seeing this,” she said. “It’s cool to see my design – that I never thought would be chosen – will be here forever.”
Words and phrases of affirmation are evident throughout the artwork – suggested and drawn by the grades 7-12 students. Among the words are determination, faith, adaptable, community, teamwork, grit, collaboration, character, kindness, intelligence, openness, empathy, respect, unity, patience and compassion.
And phrases including: "you’re important," "all are welcome here," "you are beautiful," "be brave," "you got this," "stay strong," and "the world would be different without you."
Pointing to the lower part of a massive tree, streaked with multiple shades of brown, Theisen said, “I like how ‘patience' went through the root of the tree.”
Getting started
At the outset, students were invited to submit design ideas and uplifting words for the mural – input that Everett used to sketch a plan for the mural. A grid pattern was drawn over the design, with one square on paper equaling one square foot on the walls. Students drew the grid pattern on the walls and used it to determine where to paint the elements of the mural.
“We were basically ready to paint by the end of Day 1,” said Joe Kulas, a school counselor who organized the project and leads the Sources of Strength initiative with students in grades 7-12. Students involved with Sources of Strength promoted the project to other students, but were not required to work on the mural.
“We wanted to make this a school project,” Kulas said.
“This was another way to give students a chance to express their creative side, which, if you look into research, you’ll find loads of information on how doing creative things can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
“A project like this also gives students a chance to feel connected to our school, which for some, they don’t,” as is true in any school, Kulas said.
Thompson High School students (with counselor Joe Kulas (left) and artist-in-residence Trey Everett (second from left), Kaydence Schroeder, Emma Theisen, Isabell Hilliard and Norah Tholen are photographed at the mural project Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
For the mural, the students drew inspiration from the Sources of Strength program that has been adopted in schools nationwide to spread positivity and equip young people with tools to bolster mental health.
The program is structured around eight “pillars of strength,” which are meant to remind students of the qualities they may already have – or can cultivate – to counteract feelings of hopelessness, isolation, depression and anxiety.
Sources of Strength is represented in the mural by a large sun, with eight emanating rays, labeled with the pillars that sustain a young person who’s going through a difficult time.
The artwork evolved as students made suggestions and added features that enhanced the work and reinforced the theme.
“Working with murals, it’s always changing,” Everett said.
As an artist-in-residence, this is the largest group he’s worked with, he said. At the beginning, “with all these kids working, I thought maybe we can do a big mural.”
As the project evolved, the usual 10-foot mural ended up covering more than 50 feet – 23 feet on one wall and 30 feet on the other.
The brightly-colored mural, created with acrylic paint, shows daytime on the left side and moves into nighttime on the far right, where the Northern Lights are depicted in drapes in vertical streaks of blurred color.
Symbolism is evident throughout, with images that suggest the progression of life and the growth that students experience over time.
Growth is a prevalent theme, woven throughout the mural.
The students perceive the water as the “journey of a kindergartner to a senior,” Everett said.
Students’ input
Norah Tholen, 13, an eighth-grader, submitted the idea for the words “Together We Are Thompson” to the mural. Among the stars in the mural’s night sky, she recommended and added the Little Dipper.
Tholen sought inspiration from other mural images, “taking inspiration here and there,” she said, but “most of it was my creativity.”
The artwork also evolved to include Thompson landmarks, such as the Valley United Coop grain silos, with a star atop the grain elevator; the baseball field lights; the prairie and farmhouses – telling a story in a series of small, silhouetted images along the base of the mural.
“But Thompson is more than those things,” Kulas said. “It’s about people and how you treat people, and how you’re involved in the community.”
Everett took “a lot of input and advice from students,” he said, asking for their ideas such as “what do you think about this green.”
“It’s giving students volition, giving them choices.”
(L-R) Joely Anderson, Jayden Brend, Adalee Foote, Callie Zurich, Emma Theisen and Jared Lenhart are among the 25 student artists from Thompson High School that have painted a mural in the school's cafeteria. Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Some teachers participated too, including Heidi Tweten, who teaches a class of 16 kindergarteners in a K-12 school of about 700 students.
“I was excited to first learn about the project,” she said. “I wanted to paint. I love painting.”
Everett had painted a moon a light shade of blue, which he did not like he said, and asked Tweten for her thoughts. By mixing different paints, she came up with a pale yellow.
“It’s a different way for students to shine and collaborate,” she said.
Like schools in general, creativity sometimes takes a back seat to other activities, such as sports, she said. “It’s nice to see the creative side come out.”
Tweten was pleased to be able to “leave my mark on the school,” she said. “It’s something to leave behind.”
About the kindergarten students who gather for lunch at tables near the mural, Kulas said, “It’s fun to see her kids kind of star-gazing on it.”
An added benefit was that her students “got to see the process of it,” she said, as they watched the mural change day by day.
Benefits of creativity
Everett, who works as a showcase specialist with the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council, said that among other considerations in creating the mural are the questions, “How will this look from 30 feet away, and what will it look like from the hallway.”
The words interwoven in the art “are great, because that brings people up close – you can find all these words,” he said.
Trey Everett, artist-in-residence, is shown working with Thompson Public School students on the school's mural project. Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
What’s so important about being surrounded by art is that “creativity and artwork kind of gets us to a different space,” Everett said, “and out of linear thinking, future-oriented thinking, and past regrets.
“Music, the arts, physical activity, they are vital,” he said, noting that some schools have moved away from offering these experiences. This year, Thompson Public School reintroduced art classes into its middle and high school curriculum.
Along with the basics of painting, cleaning and caring for brushes, and how to plan and create a mural, Everett impressed on the students the “three secret teachings of creativity,” he said. They are “be kind of yourself, put process over product – in other words be in the present moment – and remove ‘right and wrong.’ You can’t do it wrong.”
Supportive teachers
With their teachers’ blessings, the students left their regular classes to work on the project, Kulas said. Teachers were very supportive of the project and not concerned about students stepping away from class to help paint the mural.
Chloe Determan, a seventh-grader, was one of the students who approached Superintendent John Maus about creating the mural.
“We just said, ‘hey, we were curious if we could do this in our lunchroom,” said Determan, who’s 12. Now that it’s complete, she hopes students “will look at the words and think, yeah, I can do this, and I can have faith in myself. It feels really good and (to know) that many more little kids will see it (in the future).”
School administrators and the school community were supportive, Kulas said.
While there was some planning involved, Kulas said, working to write the grant for, and work with, the North Dakota Council on the Arts was “easy.” He wondered aloud why other schools don’t seek out this opportunity for their students.
At the far left edge of the mural, a statement printed by Everett in black on a white block gives the viewer a sense of what the mural was meant to capture. The statement, written by Kulas, reads: “A tree is always growing, developing and changing – just like the young students who come through Thompson. The words and phrases on this mural represent the strengths we have.”
Thompson mural project time-lapse video
Learn more about NDCA's Artist in Residence Program
*Special thanks to Pamela Knudson and the Grand Forks Herald for allowing NDCA to re-publish their story.