When Will the New Andrews Mural Be Unveiled?

Cambridge artist David Fichter helped students at Medford's Andrews Middle School with their new Mystic River mural, according to a post on the Medford Public Schools website published this week.

The mural will be unveiled to the community on May 17 at the 10th Annual River Day at AMS.

Fichter has been working with youth groups on art projects for three decades with perhaps the best-known being the Mystic River mural on Mystic Avenue in Somerville.

The school department said Janet Walton, an Andrews parent, "led a $10,000 fund-raising drive to bring Fichter to the school as an artist in residence for the mural project." 

The eight-by-52-feet mural will be titled "River Life," showing various aspects of the Mystic River to be placed outside the building, not far from the river itself, according to the school department.

Here is more on the mural:

There will be representations of American Indians who lived along the river; the 19th century shipbuilding and brickmaking operations; the groundbreaking Middlesex Canal; alewife, herring and other wildlife; and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, who famous poem “Thanksgiving Day” referenced the Mystic in its opening words, “Over the river and through the wood, to grandfather’s house we go.”

Andrews students created 300 different sketches and elements for the mural, working with Fichter on the concept before painting the panels in art teacher Peter Gallagher's class.