Murals by Student Need to Be Saved

Thanks to the efforts of Chadlyn Jones, the community of Laguna Beach has become aware of the risk facing the murals of Megan Hart Jones in the Laguna Beach High School cafeteria as a result of reconstruction plans slated for 1992 (Cathy Curtis, “ ‘Shadows’ Shaking Up the Present,” Calendar, May 27).

These murals should be saved, above all for their aesthetic value.The superbly drafted portraits of her classmates engaged in everyday activities have far-reaching social implications. Art should be a concern not simply for special interest groups but for an entire community and its institutions, especially its schools.

The school district now appears to be moving toward the preservation of these murals and in so doing is restoring art to the center of educational concerns, where it belongs. By preserving these murals, the school board and the teachers will send a strong message to the students that their work is taken seriously in what is all too often a throwaway society.

Then the true legacy of Megan Hart Jones will emerge in renewing a community’s awareness that art should be nurtured for its value in the lives of our children.

DICKRAN TASHJIAN, Laguna Beach