Students Bring Sights & Sounds of Cuba to Whaling Museum | Sag Harbor Express | Douglas Feiden

The creative process of art-making — especially collaborative art, and particularly art that is the brainchild of a group of free-spirited students and teachers at Pierson High School — can be inspiring and uplifting. But at times, it can be a tad messy, too.

As they worked on the final preparations for “Cuba: An Exhibition of Art and Photography,” a Pierson project that debuts at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum on Saturday, May 7, the focus of the young artists gathered in the second-floor classroom turned to a mixed-media mural based on composite images of photos they had taken during a February trip to the island nation.

Art teacher Peter Solow watched closely as sophomore Sinead Murray, gingerly holding a blue paintbrush, dabbed a few strokes on the 11-foot-wide by 7-foot-tall mural. He shook his head: “You’ve got some streaks in there!” he kvetched. Her dark blues should have been a little lighter, even as her light blues should have been a little darker, he complained.