The creation of a new mural in the faculty lounge has allowed students and faculty to express their views on the experience of being an MFS community member through art.
Efforts to design the faculty lounge mural, titled “Pathways,” started at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, with Upper School students in the Murals and Public Art minor class working alongside many faculty members from all three divisions.
Brad Carney, Middle and Upper School Woodworking and 3D Design Art Teacher, headed the construction of the mural. Joining MFS at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, Carney comes from over 20 years of public art and mural engagement with the city of Philadelphia.
“Over the course of the year, photographs were gathered, discussions were made with teachers, staff, and students, just about their feelings about the school, and then, we printed out a ton of pictures and started tracing them. By the end of the school year, we had a lot, and we started to create the collage,” said Carney.
The mural serves many purposes, especially in acknowledging and recognizing MFS as a school.
“The mural has been painted as an attempt to honor our school grounds and to paint the school in a good light,” stated Terry Zhang ’28, who works on painting the mural as part of the minor course.
Carney also touched on the intended impact for the MFS community, both faculty and students.
“There’s an origami thing, there’s a canvas, and there’s a camera, a hammer, and books. And so I tried to get faculty and staff sitting in the room to go like, ‘Oh, look, there’s me,’” said Carney. “It’s like a seek and find. It’s something for everyone to try to see if they can find themselves in the mural.”
The choice to create the mural in the faculty lounge was also attributed to various reasons, with an emphasis on available space.
Trinity Sellers ’28, who has helped paint and trace the mural, reasoned that the mural was made in the faculty lounge “so teachers had something to look at that was made by both teachers and students, as well as filling in the blank white walls that were there.”
Julia Messina ’28, another student heavily involved in the creation of the mural, highlighted the benefits that the mural could have on the faculty themselves by being placed in the faculty lounge.
“The teacher’s lounge [allows for] a quieter moment to reflect or take a break … [the mural] is a nice, calm, supportive image to see when you’re relaxing. The faculty can appreciate that, just this quiet reflection of our community,” said Messina.
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Students in the Murals and Public Art class work on the “Pathways” mural. Reel made on Instagram by @mfs_artsdepartment.
Beyond what it physically portrays, “Pathways” also represents deeper meaning and connections between the MFS community and the school itself.
“As you look across the landscape, you’ll see how all of these spaces are compiled into one pathway showing some sort of connection between us,” said Messina. “I think it was made to sort of be a celebration and recognition of all the things around our campus and the things that make us us.”
Carney shared a similar sentiment, emphasizing specific artistic choices that highlight the mural’s overall message and themes.
“To me, the mural represents the pathways we take through our experience and journey of being at Moorestown Friends School. The only areas that have a fill or [where] there’s color inside the lines are the pathways. And so that’s kind of the metaphor for how we move around,” Carney expressed.
Along with the “Pathways” mural, which will be finished by the end of the school year, the Murals and Public Art class has also been designing two more murals for different locations on campus to go up in the upcoming school year.
“During Murals and Public Art this semester, the students designed a Field House Commons mural called ‘Foxes on 3.’ That represents the feelings of coming together as a team and all the different textures and places we play. That is going to be a vinyl installation, but they designed it with hand drawings and digital photography,” said Carney. “There is [also] a ceramic tile mural going on the doorway to [the new Thrive Center].”
