By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – A conservation team is restoring a 900-square-foot mural at Woodlawn High School that was painted in the 1930s as part of a New Deal program started during the Great Depression.
Art conservator John Bertalan and his team at Conservation Technologies Inc. of Birmingham began cleaning the painting in the school's auditorium about a year ago. Work is expected to be completed this summer.
Mountain Brook Mayor Terry Oden, a 1955 graduate who helped save the mural, is frustrated with the slow pace, but is glad work is getting done.
Oden learned from another graduate that the historic mural was severely deteriorated so he sent letters to 2,000 alumni requesting donations. He got $180,000 from alumni and $101,000 more came from various groups in the community.
Bertalan said the mural, a project of the Works Progress Administration, is the largest in the Southeast.
Work began in 1935 and was completed in 1938.
Bertalan said the scenes in the mural are allegorical, with education being the overall theme.
Principal Shirley Graham said her students are interested in the work and "very proud that the alumni have chosen to restore the mural."