Twirling and twisting, the lively whirligigs lining the streets of Columbia City’s Landmark District are more than colorful art brightening the streets. Created by area high school students under the direction of local artist Carl Smool, the sculptures also tell the story of the neighborhood’s multi-cultural landscape.

In 1993, Carl selected 12 students each from Franklin, Rainier Beach and Cleveland High Schools to assist him in visually depicting the neighborhood’s diversity. Each student researched a culture, their own or another, studying its myths, traditions, and history. Upon choosing a story that best reflected the richness of the culture they chose, they set about drawing designs to illustrate it.

“The project took about four months,” says Carl. “Before fabrication, we mocked up small scale models using straws as the poles. It was a truly exceptional experience from start to finish — I even kept all of the scale models as mementos.”

Once the students were satisfied with their designs, they drew full-size patterns that were cut out of metal and assembled at the nearby Pratt School of Fine Arts. Carl returned to the high schools, paints and brushes in hand, and helped the students finish their pieces.

To explain the inspiration for the art, Carl and the students edited the stories they had chosen and mounted them beneath each one. “Story telling is such a large part of the cultures represented by the whirligigs. It was only fitting that we included those narratives in the display.”

In total, there are 39 whirligigs — four by Carl, himself. The first can be found at the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and Martin Luther King; the last at Rainier and Rose Street. The largest concentration is at Rainier and Alaska Way, what Carl considers the heart of the Rainier Valley.

Twelve years have passed since the whirligigs were introduced as part of Columbia City’s streetscape, but Carl still gets calls from people asking him to create similar pieces. It’s a testament not only to the talent of Carl and the students, but also to the time-honored tradition of preserving one’s culture through the art of story-telling.