BOZEMAN — The Bozeman High School Art Club finished a mural last week in conjunction with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University and the City of Bozeman to make the roundabout at 15th and Bealle Street safer.
“This roundabout is very dangerous. We've had car crashes; people just drive straight over it. So, they wanted to do a traffic calming project with us, and have it designed and executed by students at Bozeman High,” said Hailey Vidmar, Head of Project and Art Club at Bozeman H.S.
“We had drawn out three different designs and I actually drew out the design that worked; the Bitterroot flower,” said senior Lillian Brown.
The students chose to honor the state of Montana, with elements depicting each of the four seasons.
“And then from there—it was just on a piece of paper—and we all started working together to figure out what we wanted,” added senior Kelcie Bassett.
One of the most difficult parts of the project, students explained, was hand-crafting the stencils for the design.
The project took roughly a year to come to fruition, Vidmar said, with the help of 10 students who expressed satisfaction with the final product.
“It's really cool—like, I drew that on a piece of paper and now it's like, it's out there," Brown shared.
MTN News asked if the mural turned out how they planned.
"Yeah. It was pretty dang close. It was good teamwork and everything,” said Bassett.
Students behind the project said they hope the mural does what it is intended to do.
"One of the main reasons we did this is so they'll stop driving over the roundabout and I hope they appreciate it," said freshman Sam Funderburk. "It brings more color into this area cuz it can get kind of monotone. So, I hope it brightens their day; makes them smile.”
The mural is expected to last two to three years, at which point, the art club said it would be excited to do another.
