Painting a Legacy: Baldwin High Alumna Cayci Little Brings BHS Fine Arts to Life with New School Mural

A new burst of color is welcoming students back to the Baldwin Fine Arts Center this year, but behind Baldwin High School’s newest mural is a story that began in those same halls several years ago.

Baldwin High School Class of 2022 graduate Cayci Little recently completed a large-scale mural inside the school’s Fine Arts wing, transforming the space with a colorful celebration of the programs, performances and creative opportunities that have become hallmarks of the Baldwin High School experience.

For Little, who first discovered her own artistic ability as a Baldwin student, the project offered an opportunity to bring her journey full circle.

“I was able to display my art in my high school where I graduated,” Little said. What makes that return especially meaningful is that Baldwin High is also where she began to understand just how much artistic potential she had.

For Baldwin High School Principal Markeeta Clayton, that connection between past and present was exactly the point.

Clayton, herself a Baldwin High graduate, said renovations over the years had resulted in many older student-created murals being painted over. She wanted to revive that tradition by inviting graduates of Baldwin’s Fine Arts program to return and contribute their work to the building.

“I wanted to bring that back by having the students, graduates from this amazing Fine Arts department, come back and add to the pride of Baldwin by showing their work,” Clayton said. When Little shared examples of her artwork, Clayton said she was immediately sold on the idea.

Baldwin County School District has built a Fine Arts program that extends from early learning through high school, with music and visual arts opportunities beginning well before students arrive at Baldwin High. The district describes Fine Arts as an essential part of providing students with a diverse, comprehensive education and opportunities for creativity and self-expression. In 2026, Baldwin County Schools earned the Ray Horne Award for excellence in Literary and One-Act Play and was once again named a Best Community for Music Education by The NAMM Foundation its eleventh consecutive year receiving the national distinction.

At Baldwin High, that commitment is visible across disciplines. The Baldwin Theatre program captured the Region 4-AAA One-Act Championship for the second consecutive year in 2025 with its production of Medea. The Baldwin High School Band of the Braves, meanwhile, has made the district a gathering place for musicians from across Georgia through its annual Oconee Classic Marching Contest, where Baldwin serves as host and exhibition band while welcoming other programs to Braves Field for competition and fellowship. The Baldwin Fine Arts Center itself includes a 1,000-seat auditorium and has hosted school and community productions as well as regional and statewide Fine Arts events.

Little’s mural now becomes another piece of that story. It now stands as a reminder on the wall of what can happen when students are given room to discover what they can do.