Students’ mosaic depicts hopeful future for city

LYNN – Art students at Breed Middle School and Classical High School have pieced together a legacy with a mix of ceramic and glass tiles and broken pieces of granite.The two schools, under the guidance of local artist Yeti Frenkel, have created large-scale mosaics, each representing Lynn – one in the future, the other in the present.”Ours is the future of Lynn 2043,” said Classical art teacher Patty Klibansky.Across the street at Breed, eighth-grader Raymi Ramirez said the theme was present day, nature and sea.”It really opened my eyes to the city,” she added. “When I had to really think about what was there and what I wanted to put in the mural I realized how much is here.”The projects were funded through STARS Grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council that each school applied for separately. The “Students and Teachers Working with Artists, Scientists and Scholars” grants pay for an artist in residence to work with a school on a specific project for three days or more.View a photo gallery”Patty and Breed both applied to work with me,” Frenkel said.The projects are similar, but the mosaics couldn’t be more different, Frenkel noted.Breed’s mural includes four panels that show city buildings, flowers and a tree, a large lady bug, a worm, a swooping bird trailing a curlicue tail, a sun, some stars, the ocean and children.”It looks like it came with the building,” said Breed art teacher Christine Guay, gazing at the mosaic, which hangs over the ramp leading to the second floor. “The color scheme is perfect; it fits right in.”Guay, along with art teacher Laureen LoGiudice, said nearly every student in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades got their hands dirty working on the project.”The best part is that we all had a chance to get our creativity out,” said Yahya Adan, 14.”It’s like we left our print on the school,” said 13-year-old Tianna McToggart.Klibansky quipped that her students’ mural looked a little more post-apocalyptic. Many of her lessons deal with 21st century learning and the environment, and she wanted the mural to reflect that.Classical students, like Breed’s, brainstormed ideas, came up with sketches and Frenkel pulled them together into one sprawling drawing. Classical’s mural is three panels that together stretch 27 feet long and stands 5-feet tall.Frenkel drew the final pieces onto large boards, and students filled in the designs with bits of tile, glass and granite. The whole thing was then grouted, polished and hung.Ramirez said she thought sizing the tiles and piecing them together would be hard.”But after a while you got the hang of it,” she said. “You knew if you had a piece in the right spot – it was kind of Zen.””You guys missed the hard part,” Frenkel told the Breed students Wednesday. “The Classical kids had to grout. That’s hard work.”Klibansky also liked the idea that the mural her students created would last long into the future.”There are a couple of mentions of 2043 in there,” she said, pointing to the panels. “Maybe it will still be here when that date arrives.”The Classical piece, which includes the silhouette of a man looking out over Goldfish Pond, a Canada goose, a boy and a chicken, butterflies and an urban garden, was mounted Wednesday outside the art room in a wing tucked behind the school’s main office.”This is the lost wing,” said Klibansky. “I don’t think a lot of people even know we’re here, but I think they will now.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].