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Family

Zoo Friends Mural with Mentoring Peace Through Art

As part of the collaboration between the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minnesota Zoo, create your own animal art with me - muralist Jimmy Longoria from Mentoring Peace Through Art!

Welcome to the Zoo Friends Mural Project!

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Together, we will be making a large Zoo Friend mural of animals. You will make a colorful drawing of your favorite zoo animal and send it to the master muralist. The muralist will put all the animals together to make one large Zoo Friends mural. You will need an adult’s help to photograph and send your animal friend drawing to the muralist at jimmy@mentoringpeace.org by April 1st, 2021.

When the Zoo Friend mural is complete, the muralist will send you an image of the mural with all of the zoo friends on it that you can print or use on your computer.

Making Your Part of the Mural

The first thing you have to do is pick your favorite zoo friend. You might want to look at Minnesota Zoo’s website for ideas.

Materials you will need

  • 3-5 sheets of plain paper
  • Crayons, pencils, pens, markers – whichever you prefer
  • Safe scissors
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Draw, color and send your zoo friend

Spread your paper in front of you. Draw quickly until every piece of paper has a drawing – one animal on each piece of paper.

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Color each drawing. Have fun with the color. You don’t have to make your zoo friend the color you see in the photo—if you want a pink alligator, that’s what you’ll make!

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Pick your favorite colorful drawings.

Cut out the zoo friends. Have your adult take a picture of your colorful zoo friends and send the photo to jimmy@mentoringpeace.org.

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What I Will Do With Your Pictures

I will print out all the drawings and put them on a colorful background. I will photograph the Zoo Friend mural and send the completed Zoo Friend mural to you.

This is what the finished mural might look like. This just has my favorite animals – I am looking forward to seeing yours!

About Mentoring Peace Through Art

Co-founded by artist Jimmy Longoria and arts administrator Connie Fullmer, Mentoring Peace Through Art identifies, engages, and develops young individuals’ leadership potential through art projects that serve diverse communities’ social needs. Minnesota Orchestra audiences may recall the work of Mentoring Peace Through Art from Sommerfest 2019, Música Juntos, when they presented activities during family-friendly events and had several of Longoria’s pieces displayed in the Orchestra Hall lobby throughout the summer. To learn more about this youth outreach organization’s transformative work, including their MuralWorks projects, visit mentoringpeace.org.