When the Huskie Booster Club wanted a piece of legacy artwork to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Oak Park and River Forest High School, they turned to art teacher and local mosaic artist Tracy Van Duinen.

Van Duinen led a team of artists to create “Our Time to Grow,” a mural located on the west wall of the school building.

The Booster Club donated $50,000 for the project, with the rest funded by the Oak Park Area Arts Coun- cil. Van Duinen estimated the total cost of the mural at $90,000. The new mural was dedicated in a ceremony Sept. 18.

The project was a collaboration between Van Duinen, local artist Carolyn Elaine and the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s Off the Wall program, which hired 14 students to create the mural. A group of alumni also supported the project, including Hassani Cannon, Greta Olson and Leo Schmidt.

It ended up being a full-circle moment for Van Du- inen.

“I’m retiring in three years,” he said. “I want to leave a legacy piece behind, too.”

Junior Kaspian Murray played an integral role in the design process.

“We worked together for the next two or three weeks, just developing and working on a design in Adobe Illus- trator,” he said. “So that was a really unique experience. It felt like I was working a job because I had a client.”

The mural designers worked to incorporate both the new school branding and crest into the design. Principal and Assistant Superintendent Lynda Parker also wanted to include the Huskie Habits in the mural, Van Duinen said.

In the end, they “dissected the crest into its different elements to float throughout,” said Van Duinen. The crest can be seen on the mural, but in a more abstract form. The new Huskie logo can also be seen, encompassed by an orange circle. Green leaves float across the brick wall too, alongside the Huskie Habits the school is so often re- minded of.

“That mural will live on forever and a day,” said Ca- mille Wilson-White, who works with the Oak Park Area Arts Council.