Last school semester, I was attending my daughter’s back-to-school night at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra when I stumbled upon some unexpected art and history lessons outside the walls of the classrooms.

My daughter is a freshman, and it was my first time on her campus. I was eager to visit her classrooms and meet her teachers. But as we strolled around campus, I came face-to-face with a large mural painted along the stairwell between the first and second stories. Its bold colors and imagery that appears to merge the past and the future stopped me in my tracks. I approached the piece and scanned for the artist’s signature. When I saw that it was painted by Robert Arenivar in 1975, I felt like a bookworm who had just discovered a hidden treasure in the library.

Arenivar died in 1985 at 53 years old, and his artwork is rare. Though he painted several seminal murals in East Los Angeles through the 1970s and early ‘80s, his work is less known than fellow muralists such as Judy Baca, Willie Herron or Frank Romero. Finding the Arenivar mural at Mark Keppel was a revelation. And it is in pristine condition because it lives indoors and is not weather-beaten like other murals exposed to the elements.

It was an inspiring case of serendipity. Christian Busch writes in his book, “The Serendipity Mindset,” that “serendipity is about the ability to recognize and leverage the value in unexpected encounters and information.”

I did not expect to see historic public art at my daughter’s school, but I was determined to become a pupil of history once again.

Praise for an unsung muralist

The only reason I know about Arenivar is because of my friendship with the award-winning muralist Paul Botello. Botello told me about Arenivar two years ago when we took a drive around East Los Angeles to look at murals. Arenivar was one of Botello’s mentors and was friends with Botello’s older brother, David Botello, the co-founder of the mural team the East Los Streetscapers.

The younger Botello was 13 when he met Arenivar in the early 1970s. Arenivar was the in-house artist for the pioneering Chicano art gallery Goez Studios while creating a number of influential pieces along First Street and Avenida de Cesar Chavez, which was then called Brooklyn Avenue. Botello told me that Arenivar was an introverted factory worker before becoming a full-time artist and that he never courted fame. He just produced art.

The next morning after seeing the mural at my daughter’s school, I called Botello and asked him if he’d ever seen the Keppel mural. He had never heard of it. He told me about other murals by Arenivar in the area, but this one was new to him. I talked to the principal of my daughter’s school, but while she appreciated the mural, she didn’t know much about the artist or his story. I realized I had stumbled upon a hidden gem in plain view.

Appreciating a master of integrated arts

That same night, I was amazed to find another artistic treasure at my daughter’s school. Gazing up at the front of the art deco auditorium, I saw three stunning enamel-on- steel mural panels honoring early California history, including Spanish conquistadors, the Catholic missionaries and American pioneers, along with orange groves, redwoods, cactus, green mountain ranges, a sunburst, a map of Los Angeles County, a dairy farm, cattle and cowboys.

I looked closer and discovered the panels were created by Millard Sheets in 1939, a renowned artist and designer who created more than 200 architectural designs and murals around the country.

Entitling them “Early California,” Sheets created these bas-relief murals during the Depression as a part of the Works Progress Administration. He is especially known for the 40-plus Home Savings and Loan branch offices he designed through the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, because these buildings were extraordinary. Lauded for their colorful mosaics and stained-glass windows, these buildings give new meaning to the idea of a “jewel-box bank.” Many of these banks still stand as Chase branches and often retain two to three mosaics or a painted mural on the structure. His studio is credited with creating 175 stained glass, mosaics and murals for Home Savings, commissioned by the bank’s owner, Howard Ahmanson, Sr.

Sheets was not a licensed architect, but he was lauded for his philosophy of the integrated arts, exploring the relationship between art, architecture, dance and music, and his design skills were so exemplary that Ahmanson entrust- ed him with designing buildings that expressed the spirit and culture of the communities they served. According the LA Conservancy, Sheets created buildings that connected with the public on an emotional level and used artwork to depict local or historical themes significant to the community.

My daughter has accompanied me on mural-finding missions before, but my discoveries at her school were extra special because they were unexpected. The big takeaway was that it’s important to always pay attention, even when making a routine visit to your child’s school.

This is also relevant on a wider level. Many of the schools around Southern California were built during the Works Progress Administration era, and, like Mark Keppel, they feature an art deco aesthetic, such as South Pasadena High School. Others boast a Spanish Colonial Revival style, such as the mid-1930s building housing the Archer School for Girls in Brentwood, where a scene of the 1974 movie “Chinatown” was filmed.

Schools are where history and modernity intertwine

For a more modern angle on art and architecture at our local schools, Crenshaw High School has a brand-new auditorium, four new classrooms and accessory spaces serving the Performing Arts Department, along with a new student store, indoor dining area and outdoor lunch shelter. These new buildings are exemplary models of green architecture — a way of designing and building structures that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient — with floods of natural light, an expanded courtyard and new landscaping.

For impressive and futuristic-looking architecture, check out the Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts next to the 101 Freeway with its spiral obelisk tower that looks like a waterslide.

For me, the past — especially the ancient past — will always hold intrigue. Consider, for example, the Kuruvungna Village Springs that exist on the campus of University High School in West Los Angeles. I first learned about the springs in 1997, during my senior year at UCLA. I was walking in the area when I stumbled upon the springs. Upon deeper research, I learned that this water source once supported the thriving Tongva village of Kuruvungna. According to the Santa Monica Conservancy, the springs were a source of freshwater used by the indigenous Tongva people since at least the 5th century B.C.E.

These accidental discoveries remind us that there is significant public art, architecture and cultural history in every corner of our city, even in sites like our schools. Serendipity is everywhere when we look close enough. Next time you visit your child’s campus, look closer. You might be surprised by what you discover.

Mike Sonksen is a third-generation L.A. native, Woodbury University professor and author of “Letters to My City.”