Community Ceramic Art Mural

About the Project

Golob Art's lead artist, Alexander, worked with his old middle school art teachers to have all of Wellesley Middle School's 160-plus faculty and staff make tiles that went into a large art installation featuring over 900 tiles. "What a humbling and incredible experience it is to be able to use what I have learned to contribute to my middle school." - Alexander

Alexander was artist in residence for it, gave artist talk to 900 middle-schoolers in groups of 40-50 at a time, and organized and led 100+ person ceramic activity with teachers and staff, in addition to helping to create the art itself.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Artist-in-Residence

In preparation, he visited the site to determine measurements, appropriate methods of construction, and possible complications. He determined the appropriate steps to make artwork a reality, wrote content and prepared documents to aid in the approval of the artwork.

Student Engagement

Alexander developed and presented a talk about his career and practice as an artist and WMS alumni to the middle school art classes.

In developing the artwork, he worked with students in their classrooms throughout January and February to provide instruction, support, and feedback on their artwork and to answer questions about his personal and professional experience.

He also worked with the faculty to create their art tiles.

Artwork Creation and Installation

The tiles for the project were created and required firing in a kiln. This process required careful preparation, cutting, firing, and glazing of over 900 tiles. This portion was possible thanks to the assistance of the WMS art staff.

Artistic Design:

The arrangement for the tile artworks totaled around 3,200 sq.ft, and was created with feedback from WMS to modify design to both parties’ liking.

He marked the tiles in an organized grid system (A-1, A-2 etc.) for proper layout, and then wrapped and boxed tiles for a craftsperson to install.