Melanie Hatz Levinson, curator of exhibits at the Kidzu Children's Museum, and Jeannette Brossart, local mosaic artist, visited the Hospital School and brought all of the materials for the students to make mosaic tiles for use in the new museum currently in the planning stages. This outreach program is funded by a grant from the Orange County Arts Commission and allows Ms. Levinson and Ms. Brossart along with two undergraduate interns and one graduate intern to travel to area schools. Each student has the opportunity to make two tiles; one 6" square tile to be installed in the new building and a smaller one for them to keep.
Ms. Brossart prepared the students for the project by introducing herself and telling how she became a mosaic artist. She showed them a beautiful tile that she made of her son and his dog and then gave them a brief history of mosaic art, explaining that the tile is made of small pieces that you out together to make a larger picture. She described how mosaics were used many hundreds of years ago to be decorative as well as functional. The students used trays to hold the tiles and then designed their own pictures with glass tiles. The tiles will be taken back to the museum to be grouted and made ready for display. Our students created some outstanding tiles, learned about the history of mosaics, and had a lot of fun in the process! Ms. Levinson also left more materials for incoming students to make over the next few weeks. 