Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell challenged a high school leadership program to express the city’s youth voice through art at the new downtown park. The result – a series of 10 large murals – will be unveiled at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22.

The public is invited to Advancing Leadership Youth and the city of Federal Way’s “Art in the Park” unveiling ceremony at Town Square Park.

When the mayor was invited to speak to a group of high school students, he had no idea that the result would be a major public art installation.

Advancing Leadership’s Youth 2.0 class, a second-year program for Federal Way high school students who complete the introductory Advancing Leadership Youth year, meet regularly with local and regional leaders. They had already had several opportunities to talk with Mayor Ferrell, which might be why they were ready to respond honestly to his question: “Do you feel like your voice is represented well in our city?”

The answer: not enough.

“Mayor Ferrell immediately gave us the task to produce something for the walls that would attract the youth in our downtown core,” remembers Decatur High School student and Advancing Leadership Youth 2.0 participant Mary Lou Paule. “Our new goal was to create a professional, fun and youthful mural for everyone to appreciate and however long this might take we would go for it.”

The Advancing Leadership Youth 2.0 teens plunged into the project having no experience with producing large scale, public art. They pulled in the city of Federal Way’s Parks and Recreation Department, the Arts and Parks Commissions and Federal Way Public Schools to get ideas, approval and support. They also contacted mural artist Bob Henry, who was so impressed by their plans that he volunteered to help them throughout the process.

As the scope and vision of the project grew, the class decided to reach out to student artists at their high schools for help in creating something representative of all youth in the city.

“Advancing Leadership Youth 2.0 members were very open to and helped with whatever the artists thought would look best on the panels, while the artists saw those leadership skills and also began to adapt them,” explained one of the artists, Victoria Cacho. “I met more artist friends and Advancing Leadership Youth 2.0 members, as well as more city officials than I can count!”

After four months and over 50 hours of work by students representing every high school in the city, the project is complete. Ten free-standing, wall-size murals, painted in each of the high schools’ colors with the word “welcome” written in 130 languages (all spoken in Federal Way) are ready to be mounted all along the park.

“The mural project is a great example of the important positive role that our young people can play in the community,” said Mayor Ferrell. “Town Square Park was designed to be a welcoming place. Now, that ‘welcome’ is actually written on the wall in a way that reflects the great diversity of Federal Way.”

The “Art in the Park” unveiling ceremony will include presentations by Advancing Leadership Youth 2.0 and the student artists, local officials, and artist Bob Henry. The public will have the opportunity to speak with the artists as they view the series of murals.

Town Square Park is located at 31620 20th Ave. S., near Federal Way’s Regional Transit Center and the future site of the Performing Arts and Conference Center.

For more information about Advancing Leadership and its programs, visit advancingleadership.org.