UPDATE & SLIDESHOW. Click on photo for slideshow

Hanging on the wall of Denny Middle School US History teacher Amiee Backlund's classroom is a copy of an Oct. 6, 1999 West Seattle Herald article about The Mural Project, an art exchange activity between her 7th graders and young Tibetan refugee students in India. Students from Ms. Backlund's class sketched crayon renditions of familiar things in their lives including the Space Needle, their cat, school bus, on a long scroll of butcher paper hand delivered to the kids in India, and they responded with drawings then brought back here.

The Mural project was the idea of West Seattle photojournalist,Vicki Shaw, who started working overseas in 1996. Shaw returned to Denny School Tuesday, March 1, this time involving Tanzanian kids. She travels to schools throughout King County. She also happens to be the lucky traveler who gets to deliver the scrolls between America and India, Africa, and Asia, photographing and videotaping the students' reactions as they unfurl the artwork from another land.

Said Shaw, "The kids in the countries I went to would ask me, 'What are the kids in the United States like?' I thought, here is a great opportunity to introduce kids to each other. I asked them, 'If you couldn't pick up and go (to America), what else would you do', and they said, 'We'd do artwork. We'd draw.' Then I started taking photographs and video of them drawing and it progressed."

This time, 10 small village schools in Tanzania will participate. All six of Ms. Backlund's 7th grade classes participate. While her students were drawing, both Shaw, and her husband, Phil Carbaugh were snapping photos and panning the kids and paper with video.

"I love this project," said Ms. Backlund. "The kids are so amazed when they get the murals, and all the photos and videos back from the students in other countries. They are surprised how similar the drawings are, while they also learn some of the differences between schools and cultures."

Press release:

STUDENTS AT DENNY MIDDLE SCHOOL TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MURAL PROJECT BY EXCHANGING ARTWORK WITH STUDENTS IN TANZANIA, AFRICA

On Tuesday March 1st students at Denny International Middle School will
begin work on an art exchange project that includes ten schools in the
Kilimanjaro area of Tanzania, Africa.

All of the students in Aimee Backlund’s seventh grade classes will be
participating in the exchange. They will begin on Tuesday March 1st.
The second group will finish the project on Tuesday March 8th.

This will be the second Mural Project art exchange in which Denny students
have participated. In 1998 students at Denny exchanged artwork with
Tibetan refugee students living in northern India. This exchange is in
partnership with Kids Of Kilimanjaro a nonprofit school lunch program for the
children of Tanzania HYPERLINK "http://www.kidsofkilimanjaro.org" www.kidsofkilimanjaro.org