Los Murals: the voice of the community

Purpose This study investigates the impact of culturally relevant practices through engaging students and parents in the integration of beautifying the school campus on the West Side of San Antonio. Design/methodology/approach Highlighting the values, cultural traditions and lived experiences of a community, this qualitative participatory study demonstrates the power of ecologically sustaining partnerships to advance arts-integrated culturally responsive practices that memorialize the identity of a community. Findings In this section, we present two findings as they connect to the research question that guided this study, representation and community as family. The creation of this mural occurred under a school–university partnership model that explored how community members view their community and, by sharing their characterizations in the form of a mural, preserved their lived experiences and prevented external characterizations of their community from rendering their experience and ways of being from becoming invisible. Practical implications This study adds to existing research pertaining to culturally relevant pedagogy and provides meaningful data that can be used to emphasize the notion of the role children’s and families’ funds of knowledge play in the art educational experience. Originality/value The creation of this mural occurred through a school–university partnership model that explored how community members view their community, presents a transformative approach to school-university partnerships that prioritize the community before the university. Further, by preserving the lived experiences of the community, the re-presentation of the community to outsiders reflects an authentic representation which may replace stereotypical or assumptive knowledge held by university students and others about the community.