Rockford is home to a lot of public art installations. This summer, a group of students is adding even more through the Rockford Area Arts Council’s SPARK Mosaic program.
We’re well into week one of the two-week program and dozens of mosaic birds are taking shape under a large tent. Students hand cut glass tiles & use grinders to shave down sharp edges.
Susan Burton is the mosaic artist who has led this summer series for the past five years. She says, this year, they’re building birds after receiving a $10,000 grant from the National Audubon Society.
“The projects are of a bas-relief gallery of climate-threatened birds," she said, "that will be installed at Haskell School, and Audubon is going to be doing a plaque with the name of each bird, with a QR code that will tell about the bird."
30 kids create 30 mosaic birds. Then, they’ll all combine into one bird gallery. But that’s not the only project under this tent. Students also make Styrofoam & cement 3D bird sculptures they can take home and everyone is collaborating on a massive 3D red-headed woodpecker, along with a few other large bird sculptures. They’re still looking for a place to display those birds.
Ellie Wallheimer is an Auburn High School student in her fifth year in the mosaic summer program. She’s contributing an American Robin to the gallery. She’s experienced, but the work is still tough — perfectly matching feather colors, aligning each tile, and smoothing glass to match the contours of a tail and beak.
That all went well for Ellie, but now she’s starting the background and is a little stuck.
“I kind of was gonna go for a sunset vibe, but this was orange and I didn't want it to clash," said Wallheimer. "Then I was talking to Miss Susan, and she said that the white would make it pop, and then I'm gonna do, like a swirl of blue for the sky.”
There’s still a lot of work to be done, so how about we jump into our time machine and catch up with Ellie on the last day of the program as she’s putting on the finishing touches.
“I just ended up doing white, and the sky is like a swoop. So, that was kind of frustrating," she said. "It was tough grouting, but it's like my favorite part. I think it's so satisfying to clean off each piece of glass and see it come to life. I think it's really cool.”
Parents tour the tent, admiring the mosaics students spent the past two weeks assembling. For many students, this was their first time ever working with glass and grout.
Ellie’s had a few more years of practice, but she still can’t believe what she could accomplish: an orange and gray robin, glistening like stained glass against a white sky. She’s really happy with how it turned out.
“I like to say I'm creative, but I don't really do that much art stuff," said Wallheimer. "So, it was kind of weird that I liked this so much."
Their teacher, Susan Burton, also put Ellie in charge of decorating the base of their giant woodpecker sculpture.
“Everybody made a little design," she said, "a little picture like a bug, or like a fish or something, and then I would put a bunch of thinset down and scrape it a little bit and then put the whole piece on."
Ellie says it felt great to be trusted to supervise, but she was nervous.
“Nerve wracking. Oh my gosh, I just felt like I was gonna do it wrong," she said. "I didn't want Miss Susan to get mad at me. I don't want to mess up her baby!”
Burton says this year they focused on empowering students like Ellie and helping younger and shy students, pairing up personalities as they build a mosaic of relationships under the tent.
“We have one little guy that, you know, has trouble making friends," she said, "and he was copying people's phone numbers down today and getting their addresses and stuff -- that's big."
Mary McNamara Bernsten is executive director of the Rockford Area Arts Council. She says the impact of these programs goes far beyond a fun summer experience.
“Youth involved in the arts," said McNamara Bernsten, "are twice as likely to graduate from college, and they're five times more likely to not drop out of school in high school."
She says there’s also an important accessibility piece to public art like this, which they’re hoping to formally unveil later this summer.
“There is a place making and space making piece to public art," she said, "this creation of a sense of belonging, a sense of place, and then a sense of neighborhood pride."
Ellie says she’s excited and a little nervous to take her family to see the mosaic gallery when it’s open to the public. She and her sister will definitely be back next summer, even though she’s still scrubbing grout off of her hands.
“I love mosaicking, but I'm done," she said. "I want to spend my summer just sleeping and doing nothing. My hands feel like I have hooves now, but it was worth it!”
