Student art on display on PA Turnpike

Cocalico High School art students and teachers who created the “Scenes of Our Neighborhood” mural

In the fall of 2024, art students from Cocalico High School partnered with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to create a mural that was unveiled and hung in the Bowmansville Travel Plaza on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. Under the direction of teaching artist Mr. Mike Miller and high school art teachers Mr. Caleb Smith and Mrs. Sandra McCarthy, the students created “Scenes of Our Neighborhood.” This mural, inspired by a Pennsylvania Dutch quilt, features scenes from the local area that hold special memories for each student such as the castle at Dutch Wonderland, rolling hills and farmland and covered bridges.

The mural will be seen by the over 250,000 travelers on the PA Turnpike each year. It is an ideal depiction of what lies outside the perimeter of the turnpike in Lancaster/Berks counties.