CTTS Lynn 2025
10 Junior Fellows
11 Educators
8 Internationally Renowned Artists
Engaging Lesson Plans
Hundreds of Students on Mural Tours
9 New Epic Student-inspired Murals
Equals: Stronger Communities through Art.
It's more than youth engagement - it's empowerment
“I feel very excited that I have been given an amazing opportunity. I have been learning a lot about blending and how to use the spray paint cans… It has been awesome.” Junior Fellow
About this program
Classroom to the Streets (“CTTS”) is a Fellowship Program that uses the power of public art to transform learning, deepen community connections, and inspire change.
By bringing students, educators, and artists together with our unique cohort programming, we turn large-scale city walls into classrooms, providing an interactive learning experience around the city, empowering the exploration of identity, culture, and community through art.
How do we do this?
Through our Cohort Model, students, teachers, and world-renowned artists collaborate to design and install large-scale public art across the city. Each mural is inspired by students’ lived experiences and their environment, giving young people a powerful platform to share their voices with the community. From concept to installation, cohorts work side by side to create epic art. The completed murals spark lesson plans around the co-designed public art installations, targeting specific learning outcomes for their students. In the fall, Beyond Walls and educators organize mural explorations around the city’s murals.
The Process
Phase One
Through a very selective process, we begin by engaging participating schools and selecting educator fellows and junior student fellows. This phase sets the foundation for collaboration across classrooms and communities.
Phase Two
Fellows take part in virtual listening sessions with the Beyond Walls team to help inform the selection and curation of artists, ensuring alignment between student voice and public art.
Phase Three
Educators, student fellows, and artists meet virtually and in person to build relationships, develop ideas, and begin shaping the mural concepts together.
Phase Four
Artists work on-site with teachers and students to bring the mural to life. Fellows are actively involved in the creative process, contributing to both the vision and execution of the piece.
Phase Five
Educators implement CTTS-inspired lesson plans in their classrooms, while student fellows lead public mural tours in partnership with Beyond Walls, deepening community engagement and reinforcing student leadership.
CTTS 2025 ... At a Glance:
- Epic Art: The creation of 12 new pieces of art in 4 downtown locations.
- Community Ownership: Involving teachers from 9 different area schools, and two separate school systems, as well as Students from 5 different High schools, in public art fosters a sense of ownership and pride.
- Interdisciplinary Learning: Murals can incorporate elements from different subjects, offering a holistic learning experience. Through the CTTS-generated lesson plans, which are in direct correlation with DESE’s SEL and Arts Curriculum framework and participation in mural tours, the scope of the program is able to go Citywide.
- Cultural Appreciation: Celebrating cultural heritage through murals promotes understanding and pride in diverse cultures, especially those reflecting our beautiful community.
- Critical Thinking: Through our mural tour and lesson plans, students are able to analyze the new art, which stimulates critical thinking as students decipher symbolism and themes.
- Social Awareness: The concepts and themes of the murals were all student-led. Empowering students to use art in addressing social issues, uniting communities, sparking discussions, and activating them as community change agents.
Expanding the face of Education, one mural at a time.
Lesson Plans
In addition to our Fellowship Program, we offer a range of lesson plans tailored for Elementary, Middle School, and High School grades, all created around our murals. These lessons are built to include public school curriculum frameworks such as Visual Arts, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Science and Technology, and others. These lessons also touch on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) outcomes and English Language Learner (ELL) outcomes. Our lesson plans include:
- Hands-on art making activities
- Virtual worksheets for students that can be emailed to teachers
- Unit guides for teachers that include in-depth background information and resources for particular topics
- PowerPoints for teachers to use as visual aids
- Videos of artist interviews
Mural Tours
As part of our education program, we also offer mural tours to school groups and after-school programs. We curate these mural tours to fit the needs and interests of each particular group.
On these mural tours, which last anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half, youth get the opportunity to see and learn about 20-25 murals across downtown Lynn, while learning about the history of Lynn through the art, fostering a great sense of pride. When asked what Lynn is known for, a middle school student proudly said, “Art”.
Gallery
Bring CTTS to your city!
The CTTS Fellowship was piloted in our home city of Lynn, Massachusetts in the summer of 2025 with great success. To bring CTTS to YOUR city or school reach out to us with an email at admin@beyond-walls.org
Project Partner Snapshot
Location: Lynn, MA
Community Partners: Lynn Public Schools, St. Mary’s High School, Lynn Manufacturing, Sherwin-Williams, Atlantic Toyota, Ryan Marine, Solomon Metals Corporation, The Hall Company, Girls Inc. of Lynn, Family and Child Services of Greater Lynn Inc., Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy, SPUR, Demakes Family YMCA
Contributors: Cummings Foundation, Essex National Heritage, ECCF
Together, we can keep art thriving in our community.
If you believe in the power of this program, please donate today.
