By KYLE BARNETT

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE — Hidden behind East St. John High School is place of beauty, tranquility, meaning and emotion that would be difficult to equal anywhere else in the parish.

It is part of the mural program instituted by Janine Ward’s art program at East St. John High School, a courtyard she calls the “memorial garden.”

It began in 1991 when a student welded a sculpture of two hands coming out of a book. When the sculpture was first placed in the courtyard the hands were grasping a golden globe.

“Somebody stole the globe after two days,” said Ward.

Further additions to the courtyard included permanent benches and fences that were created by the Vo-tech welding classes.

Then art student Neyer Gros painted a mural depicting a haunting group of angels hovering over the garden.

Gros would later suffer a fatal car accident.

“It was kind of prophetic that she drew the angels looking over everyone,” said Ward.

“Now she is gone. She was a wonderful girl.”

Subsequent additions to the garden have filled every available wall and include tributes to the victims of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Also depicted is the return to the region after the hurricanes, and the rebuilding of southeast Louisiana. Since the memorial garden started, murals have spread across the campus.

Students in the art program received credit for painting the murals as their capstone senior project.

Ward said the projects in addition to campus beautification give students an introduction to what it is like to commission a public art project.

“They have all the steps of moving a client,” said Ward.

Students have to design the project and pitch it to the principal for approval before finally completing it.

The results speak for themselves.