ELLISVILLE – As part of Jones College’s recent Homecoming festivities, art instructor Mark Brown’s mural, “All Roads Lead to Jones” was unveiled. The 37-foot wide and 8-foot-high mural covers most of the wall in the Student Union at Jones College. The project took Brown more than one year to research and paint, which depicts the history of Jones County Agricultural High School, which would later be known as Ellisville High School. The high school was located on the campus of Jones County Junior College, now known as Jones College.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to do this project which began last March. I especially want my students to know, there is more to creating a large-scale mural than just coming up with an idea and sketching it out,” explained Brown who has been teaching at JC for 21 years. “There was geometrical planning, before a computerized image was created. I also did a lot of research about the college, including its beginnings as Jones County Agricultural High School. I wanted to place historical reminders of the past, like the original seal designed by a student in 1933, and the school bell which was rung to begin classes, and depict the collegiate academic and career and technical divisions, the athletic and fine arts uniforms over the years, and historical campus buildings, while also tying in the Homecoming theme of ‘All Roads Lead to Jones.’”
The mural can be removed if the wall or space is remodeled to preserve the artist rendering of the last 114 years when the high school was established in 1911 and when college courses were first offered with the creation of Jones County Junior College, in September 1927.
