Vibrant art project will brighten Colonial Park School
Published on March 12th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - In addition to the state-of-the-art facilities and bright color scheme, a school-wide project currently underway with students at the new Colonial Park School will see their artwork immortalized every time they hustle through the front door of the new school.
The Colonial Park students, faculty and staff, in an effort born of both unity and excitement for the new school, have created 408 ceramic tiles adorned with colorful paintings of trees, sharks, giraffes and moons among others. The tiles are destined for the lobby walls adjacent to the front office of the new Colonial Park School, and will live on long after their creators have moved on.
The idea germinated from discussions between the School Building Committee and Colonial Park School Architect, Flansburgh and Associates.
"This wall will be a work of art all on its own," said Carol Miller, art specialist at the Colonial Park School. "These tiles truly represent the level of talent and artistry throughout the Colonial Park School."
Miller chose the "world of nature" as the theme behind the ceramic wall, and divvied the wall into three sections.
"We were looking for three separate sections within one larger theme for the wall," said Miller of the brain-racking process of combining the activity with the kids curriculum. "We decided on creating murals of everything you would see on land, in the sea, or in the air. It matched very well with the curriculum, and the kids really connected with it."
The tiles became a labor of love for the children and staff as the kindergartners and first-graders each created one tile, grades two, three, four and five each created two tiles, and each member of the staff (down to the janitors and cafeteria workers) created two.
"The themes gave the children a tremendous amount of options," said Colonial Park second grade teacher Barbara Talanian.
"It's something that really brought the Colonial Park community together," said Miller, a teacher in the Stoneham school system for over 20 years. "We even had the sixth graders who came from Colonial Park make a tile and join in creating the wall."
Once the kids had finished painting the tiles, and then adorning them with several coats of glaze, they were sent out to be baked and returned last week.
Miller and Talanian then spent the last several days on their hands and knees painstakingly organizing the tiles in an open art room at the New Central School. The supplies and tile baking services were both funded by the Colonial Park PTO, and Talanian and Miller gladly donated their time to organize the little pieces of art.
"We went through six different design layouts before we made a decision, but it looks great," said Miller.
They did at least get some reward for their voluntary services.
"The only tile I know of with a story behind it is the painting of the bat flying in the air," said a laughing Talanian. "I know because it was one of the tiles I painted...my initials are BAT, so I decided to paint a bat."
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