Local students help create murals to celebrate culture, combat graffiti
EVERETT — A group of local middle school students helped propose, design and paint two murals outside of their campus in an effort to celebrate their neighborhood and combat graffiti in the surrounding area.
Outside of Voyager Middle School, located just south of Everett city limits in unincorporated Snohomish County, colorful murals now cover two fences that were frequent targets for graffiti tagging. In 2024, students had secured funding for paint to cover some of the graffiti, but it returned shortly after, said Annamarie Jordan, a seventh grade teacher at the middle school.
Along with the graffiti tags, the area lacks green spaces and is prone to overgrowth along its sidewalks that run alongside 4th Avenue, a busy high-speed road, Jordan said. But the students had hoped to show the positive nature of their community and recognize the diverse neighborhood they live in, they wrote in a creative brief shared with The Daily Herald. Students then decided to try their hand at painting a mural, in an effort for a longer-lasting barrier to prevent further graffiti in the area.
“We feel that by partnering with community artists, collaborating on the design of this project, and creating this beautiful and powerful representation of our community, our community will see their reflections in the art and feel the great sense of pride we all deserve to feel in our communities,” the students wrote in the brief.
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/06/23/local-students-help-create-murals-to-celebrate-culture-combat-graffiti/