Jan 3, 2018 3 min read

A mosaic art piece, created from a partnership between the Mon River Towns Program, National Road Heritage Corridor and Touchstone Center for Crafts, was recently installed at the Monongahela Aquatorium.

“This inspiring work of mosaic art by a group of engaged, enthusiastic young artists, will be a meaningful public art installation shared with community residents and visitors for years,” said Claudia Williams, Aquatorium director. “We are so pleased the mosaic has been installed at the Aquatorium.”

The Mon River Towns Program works to establish meaningful public art installations and find appropriate live-work-incubator spaces for artists in those towns by repurposing unused and abandoned properties.

This public installation piece was created by high school students from the surrounding community of Farmington, and Touchstone Center for Crafts’ staff members and instructors during the annual Teen Week Arts program. They worked together in the blacksmithing, small metals, glass and ceramic studios to create textured pieces of steel, a chased copper train and glass and ceramic tiles. The various components were then assembled to create the final mosaic.

The imagery was chosen to represent the industrial communities located along the Monongahela River, which have a rich history in steel and coal, as well as train and river transportation.

The artwork was designed by Touchstone’s summer intern staff, a group of 11 emerging artists. The interns developed the installation concept, then chose and refined the design based on the river town’s heritage and history.

By incorporating different materials, many of Touchstone’s studios are represented in the final work. Sixty students had the opportunity to participate in the project.

Students in blacksmithing employed traditional forging techniques. Using a coal forge, hammer, anvil and vise, they twisted and hammered steel rods in different ways to achieve the texture on the beams and girders.

Small metals studio students used hammering and stamping techniques to create the surface texture on the sawed form of the copper train. The students also incorporated the skills of chasing and repousse to develop the final three-dimensional effect. The patina that will form serves to age the metal, reflecting the historical era of coal-fired locomotives.

The majority of the piece is finished in ceramic and glass tiles that were cut using traditional mosaic crafting methods.

Students from the Susan Brimo-Cox Glass studio created unique elements to add variation and color using flame-working techniques learned during their workshop time. Fragments of sheet glass were incorporated to provide a painterly effect to the composition.

For information on the Mon River Town Program, visit www.monrivertowns.com.