General George A. McCall School interior mural (title unknown)

The McCall School Mural by artist David McShane is painted in the cafeteria of the General George McCall School located in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The mural is in the gymnasium/cafeteria, with the central themes of the mural being: sports, health/nutrition, and diversity. The first two themes are directly related to the use of the multi-purpose room, and the third theme is related to the students who use the space.

The design for the mural grew out of the 8 weeks of mural art classes that McShane taught on Thursday and Friday afternoons with the “art stars” of the 5th through 8th grade students. During the mural class, the students each designed their own version of the mural, and from these designs McShane pulled ideas to create the final design.

The mural contains a diverse group of middle-school-aged kids playing different sports with large fruits and vegetables instead of balls. Each sports figure in the mural has on a rainbow-striped shirt to further symbolize diversity. There is also a vine pattern in the background to symbolize the interconnectedness of the diverse students as a community and to further emphasize the fruit and vegetable healthy eating idea. One of the sports figures in the mural is of a baseball catcher, about to catch a large raspberry. Trailing from the raspberry and cutting across the design of the mural is a series of circles. A circle was assigned to each student and in it they could paint directly on the wall their own contribution to the mural and its themes.

Location Note: This mural is inside a school building, and therefore not accessible for public viewing.