COLLABORATIVE MOSAIC MURAL
WESTDALE SCHOOL
report by MARY FERGUSON, art specialist

This year a multi-age group of 21 grade 6-8 students from Westdale School met to plan out and create a mural to welcome visitors to our school. The mural project was facilitated by local mosaic artist, Ursula Neufeld and myself. Students incorporated themes of nature, culture and identity within the piece. This project was able to take place with the support and flexibility of the school staff and administration and the financial support of the school, school division and of course the MAAE. 

​​Objective: What We were Aiming For 
Our goals for this piece were to create a work of art that would catch the attention of the surrounding community, parents and students in the neighborhood and function as a welcome. It would also acknowledging the natural space where our school resides. We wanted the front entrance to visually speak about our learning community within the school and to represent our school’s focus on inclusivity, empathy and environmental stewardship. 

​We strived to create a safe and creative place where students could be engaged and focused on an enriching visual arts learning opportunity. We wanted these students to develop a sense of pride in their work and a sense of belonging and connection with the building. 

Artistic Vision: Idea Development Process 
Students began the project by working in groups with the themes of nature, eyes, community. They spent an afternoon brainstorming through drawings and word maps. They took turns sharing their ideas and collaborated by connecting ideas together. We created a gallery walk by posting all the drawings on a wall and discussed them as a whole group. Older students naturally took on leadership roles and encouraged some of the quieter, younger students. 
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For our next afternoon, Ursula shared a slide presentation to introduce students to mosaic art and also to expose students to a variety of contemporary art ideas that explored similar themes. The kid’s excitement began to build as they thought about new possibilities. 
After further discussion, the group decided that our central image would be a white-tailed deer. We felt that this would be a great image choice to represent the natural part of our Charleswood community. The rest of the mural imagery grew from the deer, in a really fluid and natural way. The antlers became tree branches with eye shaped leaves, and the earth and water flowed underneath. We decided to include a forest of birch trees and used the negative space as “windows” that included our school’s values, represented by the Seven Teachings. These teachings represent our school community and would be recognized by new generations of students attending the school. 

Individual and Collaborative Work
Shining Eyes in Stained Glass 
For the eye-shaped leaves, students individually planned a design for their own “eye”, which they designed to reflect who they are; their personal identity. These individual mosaic pieces were later mounted on the mural surface. We used Stained glass for the eyes. 
Ursula worked with the students to demonstrate how to use the different mosaic tools used to cut stained glass and how to make the different cuts to create the necessary pieces. Students were able to put what they learned to practice while they mosaicked their eyes. They also learned how to prepare the surface, fasten the pieces and grout them. Discovering colours was a very fun part of the process as we had so many beautiful pieces to choose from. 

The Deer in Nature in Ceramic Tiles 
As students completed this part of the project, they moved to the Crezone surface for the overall mural and began to sketch out our image of the deer, antlers, leaves, water, earth, sky and birch trees. We uses chalk pastel to plan out colour possibilities. 
At this point, it was exciting for me as their visual arts teacher, to see the students come out of their shells and interact with each other. They recognized and pointed out each others’ gifts and learned to be flexible in their vision. These were such valuable lessons. 

​We used tile for the remainder of the mural as well as some mirror. Students worked together to choose what tile colours and textures would work best for the different components of the piece. Again with Ursula’s expertise, they learned how to use a variety of tile-cutting tools. Students naturally paired off or joined new groups to get this piece-work done. Ursula and I quickly found ourselves in more of a facilitator role and really enjoyed watching the students take the lead. 

Cleaning and Polishing: Time to Celebrate 
Once all pieces were on and grouted, we cleaned and polished up the work. The mural was mounted at the school with all participants watching with pride. Seeing all the smiling faces, watching students explain their work to teachers, family, and community members, confirms that our project has been a huge success. The sun sparkles off the stained glass and mirror welcoming visitors, staff and students as they enter the school. We have had a video made by a staff member, documenting the process start to finish that will be presented to the community on our celebration afternoon. 

A huge shout out of thanks goes to Ursula Neufeld for her passion, dedication and expertise, the students for the hard work and creativity, Westdale School and staff for supporting our project and of course MAAE for encouraging Art projects with their grant program.