As the school band played, student artists from Marina High and CSU Monterey Bay, along with Principal John Schilling and President Dianne Harrison, snipped colorful streamers to celebrate the completion of a mural at the high school. The ceremony on Dec. 1, 2011, marked the completion of a yearlong collaboration between the high school and the university's Visual and Public Art Department.

The mural takes its name from the school’s motto, Navigate the Future. Last spring, students at MHS exchanged ideas and drawings with Professor Johanna Poethig’s painting and mural class, and then, this fall, the project was brought to life on a prominent wall at the school’s entrance.

It shows a lighthouse and a yellow brick road with ancient footprints that lead to a universe of endless possibilities. At the base, a compass emerges from the ground while a figure at the right looks through a telescope to the future. A high-tech “teleporter” depicts a light-hearted, science fiction-infused peek into a future technological world.

Read more about CSUMB's Visual and Public Art Department here.