A petition to preserve the murals painted on the walls of Thornlea Secondary School has united current and former students across the GTA.
School officials announced that plans to update the murals to better reflect “current” life would paint over approximately 60 works of art.
This, however, prompted grade 12 student Emily Amon to start a petition protesting the plan, which received more than 500 signatures.
“The murals are student art and mean a lot to the students, teachers and alumni,” she said.
A meeting was held to reach a compromise. Rather than painting over all the murals, eight to 10 will be preserved in their original on-the-wall format. The ones saved will be decided by popular vote.
Sheri Epstein, the school’s principal, said that every piece of art will be carefully digitally archived for posterity by a professional photographer who has been hired to take photos of each mural.
Some digital reproductions will be enlarged and framed, to be hung around the school, and all will be incorporated into a book to be added to the school’s library.
Epstein said every person in the school, both students and faculty, was allowed to cast a vote for their favourite piece.
The outcome of the vote will be presented to students and faculty by early July — on the same day that final marks are released for exams.