When Harrison High School opened in 1970, its halls were awash what art teacher Mr. Bill Harmon called "a kaleidoscope of bright colors." But by the late 1980s, those colors were disappearing, giving way to beige and dark brown.
School administrators, such as Mr. Clayton Graham, the principal at Harrison in the late 1980s, argued that those awful beiges and browns gave the school a "cleaner" image. HHS needed to reverse the damage done to its image during the 1970s (when the radio station and the student lounge were destroyed due to acts of vandalism).
Indeed, few students complained openly about the loss of color.
One student who did complain was Mark Rabinowitz. In November 1988, as a junior in Studio Art class, he designed a mural with the intent of painting it on a wall in one of the corridors, adding some color back to the school's increasingly colorless walls.
"The new beiges and browns promote the stereotypical prison image," Rabinowitz said, adding that those colors corroborated stereotypes perpetuated by Farmington and North Farmington students about Harrison being prison-like, citing an article in the November 1987 Catalyst in which students from those schools were interviewed about their perceptions of HHS.
Rabinowitz also argued that beiges and browns, being not much different than black and white, were one-dimensional, caused students to feel less upbeat, and gave the impression that the student body had become less creative than in years past.
The original copy of Rabinowitz's mural design, called "Operation Colorize," is either still in some old file at Harrison, or otherwise lost. However, Rabinowitz described it as having a black background with rectangles of various colors around the edges, and featuring a large black-and-royal blue checkered triangle taking up the center and serving as the focal point, styled in an "Op Art" sort of manner.
He noted that there were four murals on the top floor of the school at that time: One next to room 301, one next to room 333, one next to the school store's entrance (the Emporium), and one inside the library classroom (a small room adjoining the library that is referred to in the map below as "the non-book media room").
Rabinowitz mentioned another reason why he wanted to take up the fight against beige and brown: In 1981, his father decided to redo two bedrooms in his house with beige walls and brown carpets. They were the bedrooms belonging to him and his older brother, Sander ('86). "I realize now, he's the owner of the house, and he was thinking about selling it after Sander and I left the house," Rabinowitz said. "But (in 1981) I wanted my room painted orange and I never asked for beige. Beige is boring. It isn't even a color in the Crayola box."
Happily, Mrs. Laura Sparrow reports that Harrison High has recently regained some color. Mrs. Sparrow, who taught English during our years at HHS and briefly returned there in 2009, says, "The old (murals) were painted under years ago, and Harrison went a long time with none, then started up again when they put the skylights into the library. It got the first (and maybe best) ones then." The murals just below the skylights in the library feature historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Socrates and Mahatma Gandhi.
He noted that there were four murals on the top floor of the school at that time: One next to room 301, one next to room 333, one next to the school store's entrance (the Emporium), and one inside the library classroom (a small room adjoining the library that is referred to in the map below as "the non-book media room").
The map above shows walls where murals existed as of 1988 (in green) and walls where Mark Rabinowitz wanted to paint his mural (in yellow). Click on the image above for a larger view.
He identified several sites on that floor where a new mural could be painted, including four at the east end the Social Studies corridor, parts of walls near stairwells 5 East and 6 West, and the wall between the doors to rooms 341 and 343.
However, Mr. Graham told Rabinowitz that the only way to paint a new mural was to paint over one of the existing murals, claiming that he did not want to see his walls completely covered over by murals. Rabinowitz disliked that option. "I wanted to add color to the school, not destroy someone else's work." Rabinowitz recalled. "Then my older brother Sander ('86) told me that the black-and-white mural that had been painted next to room 333 (in 1987) was not a new one; it was painted over another mural that another student had painted. That was terrible. I don't know how anyone could do that."
However, Mr. Graham told Rabinowitz that the only way to paint a new mural was to paint over one of the existing murals, claiming that he did not want to see his walls completely covered over by murals. Rabinowitz disliked that option. "I wanted to add color to the school, not destroy someone else's work." Rabinowitz recalled. "Then my older brother Sander ('86) told me that the black-and-white mural that had been painted next to room 333 (in 1987) was not a new one; it was painted over another mural that another student had painted. That was terrible. I don't know how anyone could do that."
With Mr. Graham refusing to allow Rabinowitz to paint a new mural, and Rabinowitz refusing to destroy someone else's work, Operation Colorize was a no-go.
Rabinowitz mentioned another reason why he wanted to take up the fight against beige and brown: In 1981, his father decided to redo two bedrooms in his house with beige walls and brown carpets. They were the bedrooms belonging to him and his older brother, Sander ('86). "I realize now, he's the owner of the house, and he was thinking about selling it after Sander and I left the house," Rabinowitz said. "But (in 1981) I wanted my room painted orange and I never asked for beige. Beige is boring. It isn't even a color in the Crayola box."
Happily, Mrs. Laura Sparrow reports that Harrison High has recently regained some color. Mrs. Sparrow, who taught English during our years at HHS and briefly returned there in 2009, says, "The old (murals) were painted under years ago, and Harrison went a long time with none, then started up again when they put the skylights into the library. It got the first (and maybe best) ones then." The murals just below the skylights in the library feature historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Socrates and Mahatma Gandhi.
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