The Bowen Island Community School Garden Mosaic Project was an initiative supported by Arts Starts, an organization that encourages education through the arts, through the Bowen Island Community School (BICS). The project was conceptualized and organized by artist Bill Hoopes and carried out by students in grades 6 and 7. Ongoing support from the school principal, Louise McLay, and the grade 6-7 teacher, Tammy Sanhedrai, were critical to the success of the project, as was the general support of the school staff.  

 

The project began with a visit to grade 6 and 7 classrooms in the fall of 2006. Bill spent an afternoon with the students at BICS, discussing how to draw and also how to see the things that they observe in their environment. Part of the afternoon was spent outside in the woods adjacent to the school, where students were given the opportunity to draw things they saw in the Bowen landscape. A popular beach was chosen as the subject of our project because of the view it provided of the island’s ecological diversity. 

 

Preparations were then begun for the design and execution of the mosaic.  Artist Bill Hoopes prepared a drawing of the selected scene for the mosaic.  The drawing was then transferred to an 8X12 foot coroplast (a white, plastic cardboard-like substance).  A coloured pencil version of the scene was also created to guide choice of mosaic tile colours. Using a grid transfer technique, the entire scene was then divided into 24 equal sections.   Each section of the drawing corresponded to a “design panel” on which students would lay tiles. Given the anticipated size of the finished mosaic (8X12 feet), work would be done on each design panel , in turn, and then the entire set of 24 panels would be re-assembled and mounted to create a single mosaic.

 

 

Prior research on the mosaic process was a significant part of the preparation. Although many different approaches to mosaic art have been developed, the processes employed in the current project were selected with consideration of the safety of the student participants. Specifically, concerns about bringing corrosive materials used in many approaches in the creation of mosaic into the classroom lead Bill to develop a method that was not only safe but would  also facilitate easy clean up and weekly storage of the project until the time of its installation. Working on smaller sections also afforded students easy access to the work surface in the classroom.

 

A multi-purpose room within BICS was secured for conduct of the project. Bill met with grade 6 and 7 students to work on the project on Mondays and Fridays throughout April and May, 2007.  Mornings were devoted to setting up the design panels and tiles for placement, and students worked laying tiles in groups of 12 - 24 during the afternoons. 

 

Bill Hoopes contacted Kim Hauner, a Bowen Island resident and manufacturer of tile in Vancouver, who generously agreed to donate the tiles needed to complete the mosaic project. Tile colours were selected to correspond to the planned mosaic, as closely as possible. In the early spring 2007, Bill began regular meetings with grade 6-7 students at BICS to work on the project. During the first meeting, Bill presented a slide show and talk on the history of mosaic art. The students were shown examples from the time of the early Greeks and Romans to more modern applications of the medium.

 

Before actual work began on the BICS mosaic, Bill engaged the students in discussions about the nature of the collaborative process involved in the execution of such a sizeable work of art. Students also discussed ownership of the completed piece of art, with Bill emphasizing that the finished product, not only would belong collectively to all who participated in its production, but would also leave a legacy for generations to come, once the full mosaic was mounted.

 

Over the next weeks, students came to the multi-purpose room at BICS during assigned art periods to work with Bill on the mosaic. Their primary task was tile setting. This required identification and selection of appropriate colored tiles for a particular section of the scene, as well as establishing the “flow” of the picture through the andemento of the tiles.  As panels became completed, students also learned to cut tiles using tile “nippers”, following established precautions to avoid injury with cut glass tiles. Indeed, no child was hurt during the process. 

 

The geometry involved in the process of breaking up the large area of the mural surface into progressively smaller pieces offered opportunities for the students to “do the math”. We estimate that approximately 25,000 bits of tile went into the creation of the mural.

 

In order to encourage parent and community participation in the mosaic project, Bill also made himself available on Wednesday nights during April and May for students interested in bringing their families to do a little tile setting. This time would also be used for “nipping” tile into smaller pieces, filling of holes and preparing the design panels for the next art class.

 

On the first weekend of June, 2007, according to schedule, several members of the community volunteered to assist with the mounting of the mosaic panels to the substrate engineered and constructed by the West Vancouver School District Facilities Department.

 

Volunteers for of mosaic included the following community members, and their contributions were greatly appreciated:

 

                                                                                Shelley Hymel                        Kim Hauner                                       

                                                                                 Sean Olson                     Tammy Sanhedrai

                                                                                Jaime Hoopes                        Blanca Bach

                                                                               Gail Gallander                      Robert Wright

                                                                                 Tony Dives

 

 

The completed mural is 8X12 feet and serves as a beautiful backdrop to the BICS community school garden.

 

Spending the time to create significant pieces of public art with young students is an investment in the future of artistic and cultural development in our society.