Mural Project for Lockwood STEAM Academy

Lockwood STEAM Academy is a public elementary school located on the historic Lockwood campus in the Coliseum neighborhood of East Oakland, CA.

Our school serves over 630 students from transitional kindergarten to fifth grade. More than half of our students are English Language Learners, many of whom are immigrants or first-generation Oakland residents who come from countries experiencing hardships such as generational poverty, extreme crime and war. Additionally, many of our students come from multi-generational Oakland families who have called our neighborhood home for decades. We are proud to serve the children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren of former Lockwood students. Our school is in a busy urban neighborhood where violence and crime are prevalent. For many of our students, school is more than just where they come to learn. Our school is where many of our students eat all three of their daily meals, receive therapeutic services, and develop lifelong skills to be successful as students and changemakers in their community.

We are proud of our school community's diverse backgrounds. We want to honor our students' heritage by creating works of art in the form of murals that reflect the beautiful diversity of our school community. The funds will be used to pay for the materials and labor of professional artists who will work alongside our students and their families to create murals on our campus. This project is important to us as we want to create a welcoming space that our students and their families can be proud of for generations to come.