The artwork of 23 Campbell Elementary Dragons will soon wind its way through the streets of Austin. 

Capital Metro on Wednesday unveiled its first two zero-emission, electric buses—covered inside and out in artwork designed by students at Campbell Elementary School in East Austin. 

Campbell Principal Keith Moore said the school, teachers, staff and students were honored and excited to be part of the project. 

“Our scholars have worked super hard, our teachers have worked super hard, just encouraging our scholars to be creative, unique artists,” Moore said. “We want our scholars to be able to create, and know that their art has value, that things that they create have purpose.”

Austin ISD partnered with Capital Metro and Creative Action on the project, for which a panel of judges from community arts-based organizations judged the finished artwork and chose the student winners. 

Stephanie Chavez Noell, senior director of community programs for Creative Action, said they took part as a way to use arts-based learning to share students’ vision of a sustainable future with the greater Austin community. The design theme was, “What does a healthier planet mean to me?”

“These scholars used their artistic skills to design these bus wraps for the new buses, and they also learned about sustainability and what does it mean to really support the environment through transportation,” she said. “[They] created work that’s really vibrant and really relevant to the youth of Austin.” 

Randy Clarke, president and CEO of Capital Metro, said part of what made the project amazing is that the electric buses are the first in Central Texas. 

“Having these buses represent clean emissions and a better, healthier city is what this is all about,” he said. “I can’t think of a better way to connect the first electric buses in Central Texas with what they really mean to our community than having young people in our community design what a good sustainable city looks like in their future.”