Home is where the heART is
ABOVE: Students dance and pose in front of the Home is where the heART is mural at the Winter Formal.
In 2026, Cuyahoga Falls students were greeted with the installation of our Home is where the heART is mural at the new 6-12 Campus. This digital collage features the work of more than 500 Cuyahoga Falls K-12 students, and was funded with support from the Ohio Arts Council and the GAR Foundation as part of a year-long interdisciplinary artist-in-residence program. Allyse served as the teaching artist in the Elementary and Middle Schools, and Mac served as the teaching artist in the High School. Together, they worked with students, staff, and community members to research, explore, and understand “What home means” in Cuyahoga Falls.
ABOVE: one of several temporary public art installations created for the Home is where the heART is project in Cuyahoga Falls.
At the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, students worked with Mac and Allyse to create a series of art installations for the Cuyahoga Falls All-City Artwalk to share what they had learned and created to bring their vision to life. As construction of the new 6-12 Campus neared completion, Art x Love worked with the architects and school leaders to refine and finalize the mural for display. This included doubling the size of the mural, refining the composition, and optimizing all student artwork for high-resolution production.
ABOVE: The Home is where the heART is mural in the Cuyahoga Falls 6-12 Campus.
ABOVE: Refined concept art and work in progress designing the mural.
BELOW: A sampling of student art and details from the final design.
After a year of research, exploration, creative development, and learning, the Public Art & Design students aligned on a vision for the mural that focused on growth, learning, perspective, and pride. The final mural design is loosely organized from left to right by age, with elementary school and middle-school artwork on the left and high-school artwork concentrated on the right. A Moses Cleaveland Signal Tree spans the mural with branches that transition through the seasons from winter to spring to summer to fall, mirroring the growth of students and the passage of time. Butterflies can be seen throughout the composition, reflecting change and transformation. If you look closely at the waves and ripples that span both sections of the mural, you can read the responses from community members we received to the question “What does home mean to you?”
We are exceedingly grateful to the teachers who championed, secured funding, and oversaw this project: Jennifer Schulman, Claire McCarter, Doug Smith, and Amber Hamilton. We would also like to the thank the City of Cuyahoga Falls and the more than 2,500 Cuyahoga Falls residents and visitors who responded to our surveys and informed and inspired this project. Thank you!
