Students Create A Mosaic Legacy

Fifth-Graders Design School Mural

Fifth-grade students at Charles R. Drew Elementary School in Silver Spring are creating a mosaic mural for the school's entrance as part of an inaugural arts legacy project.

Students have been using their weekly art period this month to work with artist-in-residence Tara Holl on the ocean-themed mural, which will be about six feet wide and four feet tall, said Shelley Johnson, Drew's arts integration coordinator.

Students selected the underwater motif (Drew's mascot is a dolphin) and sketched individual designs. They then worked in small groups to combine several of the concepts into one drawing that is being re-created using tiny multicolored tiles.

The fifth-graders have glued the tiles onto 32 cement panels and are now grouting them. The panels will fit together like pieces of a puzzle to create the complete mural, Johnson said.

All of the work has been overseen by Holl, a mosaic artist from Brookville, who is wrapping up a four-week residency at the school, Johnson said.

School administrators have not determined when the mural will be installed.

The mural was suggested by two parents, Ginny Jones and Kathleen Laguna, and funded in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. Other parents have donated supplies and assistance.

Johnson credits the entire Drew community for working to create the mural and said parents hope to see an arts legacy project by graduating fifth-graders become a yearly tradition.

"What they wanted was for fifth-grade students to create something for this school that would be a permanent fixture," she said.