From the new bike-trail markers in Marvin Gaye Park to the East River Safeway renovation, signs of Ward 7’s ongoing face lift are all around us. But you don’t have to be a skilled contractor or expert planner to help beautify our community, as a team of children and artists from the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative recently demonstrated.

On March 30, a dozen children from Burrville Elementary School, Smothers Elementary School, Cesar Chavez Public Charter School and Burroughs School redesigned two city planter boxes at the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road. The boxes are adjacent to the East River Park shopping center, which was recently purchased by real estate developer City Interests.

The “Adopt-a-Box” project is supported by a small grant from City Interests as well as support from the Ward 7 Business/Professional Association. City Interests’ Chris Lopiano states that the Arts Collaborative’s project offered “very practical suggestions on how we can use low-cost, community-based art to improve the curb appeal of one of our major assets … using local artists while helping kids.”

Shanta Bryant, a sixth-grader at Smothers, is one of the student artists on the project. Her team decided to adorn their box with leaping stars. “I liked being with my friends, helping the community out but still having fun at the same time,” she says. “I think it’s going to be good for the community because it’s making the community look more beautiful.”

Eighteen-year-old Maurice Hill, a painter, rapper and Arts Collaborative intern, supervised the children’s work. “It was a great experience,” he recalls. Hill drew on his youthful outlook to steer the children’s natural interests in a more positive direction. “Kids like art for the most part, but usually … they’re drawing the cartoons they see on TV, which aren’t always good for them,” he says.

Using figures from real life, Hill says the youth needed a lot less supervision once they got the hang of working with the marble beads and caulking glue. “They still got to do their art, to make it nice and colorful the way they like it, but they were doing something that’s going to reflect their intelligence in the community.”

The children’s intelligence and creativity were on full display for passersby, considering the day’s beautiful weather and the heavy, noontime vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the Minnesota-Benning corridor. Metropolitan Police Department officers James Alexander and David Tucker were dispatched from the Sixth District Headquarters to keep the students and artists safe while they worked. Officer Alexander, a Ward 7 resident, was so excited by the project that he phoned his wife, a school teacher, and invited her to observe the children’s work.

Young and old pedestrians alike expressed their appreciation for the designers’ efforts. “We had some elderly people who were like, it’s good to see these kids out here doing something good with their time,” Hill says. Two women in particular stopped to encourage the children and asked Arts Collaborative board member Zandra Chestnut if they could be photographed with these young artists.

Hill received his share of praise from his peers, including those involved in the street life. “Even they came over to say how proud they were of me, that I’m doing something positive.” Other teens in the area approached Chestnut and other Collaborative staff members to find out how they could help beautify Ward 7’s streets, find summer jobs, or help the Arts Collaborative on future projects.

With two boxes completed, the Arts Collaborative has 18 more planters to upgrade. So there is plenty of opportunity for additional businesses and youth to get involved. The boxes will eventually be replanted with attractive fountain grasses. That should make Shanta Bryant happy. “I’d like to see more flowers and trees,” she says.

Hill hopes the boxes will inspire others to take more pride in the community. “Maybe they’ll say that since somebody [beautified these planters], I’ll stop littering or I’ll do something to help out.”