WESTWOOD : Students Design Gate That Displays Symbols of History

For third- and fourth-grade students at Westwood Charter School, two steel gates they designed and painted allow them to touch history, sort of.

Applying what they learned in social studies classes, 62 students designed and painted the gates to symbolize California and its history. There are depictions of Mickey Mouse, a mission bell, a California gray whale, a Spanish galleon, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and mountains.

The students were optimistic that their work will be long-lasting. “We did something that’s not going to fade away,” Zoe Rosenblum, 10, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.

Principal Michelle Bennett said it was “so enriching designing gates that will live on. All the kids will be able to look back and say, ‘I did something,’ some years from now.”

The gates, each 42 inches by 88 inches, are located at the south end of the campus near Selby Avenue.

The project began about three weeks ago when sculptor James Wolfe, whose son Rowie attends the school, decided to help teach students about sculpture art. Wolfe has been a professional sculptor for 27 years and has created about 300 artworks. Some of his pieces are at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Students drew their design ideas on paper in class. Later, they visited Wolfe’s Inglewood art studio to mold their ideas onto steel. Wolfe welded the pieces together and filed and smoothed the surfaces so students would not hurt their hands.

Students freshened up the work with paint Monday under the guidance of teachers Selma Rappaport and Barbara Evans.

Students such as Caitlin Rapoport, showed their creativity. Caitlin painted a Native American in traditional dress. “I thought of Native Americans. That’s what California was,” she said.