Hellgate is well renowned as Missoula’s most artistically gifted high school, and our hallways are a testament to that title; filled with a rich and diverse artists’ portfolio of murals from throughout Hellgate’s history, murals are just something the city’s oldest high school does well. Murals bring color, inspiration, and school spirit to the halls every day, and can even bring more complicated issues into the minds of highschoolers who otherwise wouldn’t consider them. Recently, a student-led project is aiming to bring a new mural to an otherwise colorless corner of Hellgate. Where some just see a blank wall near the choir room, Junior class vice-president Leo Westenfelder sees a blank canvas.
“The idea just kind of came to me one day sitting in Student Government class,” said Westenfelder, who’s currently serving his first term as a part of student gov. “The idea” aspires to fill a section of wall in the third-floor english and choir hallway, just at the top of the stairs, with a student created mural. The hallway, and areas around it, are completely devoid of any kind of artwork despite being fairly high traffic sections of the school with tall, blank walls.
Westenfelder said he got 11 submissions from Hellgate students of all grade levels. Contestants each painted a smaller mock-up representation of their mural, and these mock-ups were displayed at a community art show at the Zootown Arts Community Center. “The community could come and donate to vote on the pieces,” said Westenfelder. The student body also voted on their favorite piece, but community votes were weighted slightly more than student ones.
“The piece with the most votes will become the mural in the halls and that piece’s corresponding artist will paint it,” said Westenfelder. He also said donations from the ZACC art show will fund the student artists’ materials.
Sabine Glaser, junior, was excited to submit her piece to the mural contest. “I’ve always wanted to paint something on one of the white walls at Hellgate,” said Glaser. “I chose the idea that I settled on because I felt like it had purpose and represented an underrepresented community at Hellgate.”
Glaser’s mural depicts a Salish woman in medieval knight’s armor. Covering her mouth is the red hand of missing and murdered Indigenous women. She’s standing in front of Missoula’s iconic M and L, and in the sky the powerful phrase “No More Stolen Sisters” is written.
Glaser’s mural stands out from the rest because it addresses a prevalent cultural issue while connecting it both to the Missoula and Hellgate communities.
“I think that the biggest issue with the missing and murdered Indigenous women is that people just kind of turn a blind eye to it,” said Glaser. She hopes this mural will bring more awareness to the issue and have a positive impact on our community. “Having a mural with meaning behind it is really important,” she said. “You could just paint a wall, or you could paint a community.”
