A part of the Copper Beech Middle School Cultural Arts program has been to further support art education. Art teacher Heather Graessle, and principal, Robert Bergman were instrumental in initiating this interdisciplinary mural. Thanks to the Arts in Education program, and Ms. Graessle's work with Artsonia.com, funds were applied towards creating a permanent installation for the school.

The installation, made of 6” x 6” clay tiles created by the school’s 7th grade students engaged the students in a hands-on experience covering the complete ceramic process.

Each student was responsible for creating their own individual tile, painting and preparing it for the first firing. Every individual tile was treated as a single work of art that was used and assembled as a whole mural.

As part of their artist in residence program, students worked under the direction of guest artist Cliff Mendelson and art teacher Ms. Graessle on a large scale ceramic tile mural entitled, Art & Science – The Unity of Diversity.

The mural depicts the biodiversity of the planet and how interconnected all the animal and plant life is to its existence. One of the seventh grade science teachers, Tanya Broccolo, supplied Ms. Graessle with the science curriculum units.

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life. It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet. We explored that diversity in a visual way by creating 3D relief tiles. Many of the images the cell (plant and animal), analyzing organisms using a microscope, characteristics of life (cell, respond, adapt, energy, reproduction, grow), genetics and plants are about adaptation and how nature has evolved to create these amazing life forms. Our job as artists is to bring them alive in a very visual approach using clay.

How can you help protect the diverse life around us? Here are some basic ways to start living a sustainable life:

1. Recycle

2. REUSE

3. Compost

4. Walk, Bike or Bus

5. Conserve Energy & Water

6. Buy or Borrow Local and Reused Products

7. CLEAN GREEN

8. Bring your own bags

9. Drink from the tap

10. Get growing!

The funding for our guest artist was provided by the Arts in Education program. All costs for materials were supplied by Ms. Graessle’s work with Artsonia.com. Thank you to all of the parents who bought personalized keepsakes from their children’s online portfolios! We would also like to extend a very special thank you to Ray Cilento and Steve Papineau for displaying this heavy work of art in the hallway.

Student Artists

Apostolou, Julia

Arcure, Michael

Avery, Julianne

Calise, Matthew

Campoverde, Joselyn

Cristofaro, Miranda Nancy

Davino, Maria Ann

De La Rosa, Damian

Degrazia, Jenna

Dimaranan, Jule

Elzoghby, Mariam

Gardner, Matthew

Gewida, Hamzah

Gomez, Grace

Guadagno, Nicole

Hernandez, Jimmy

Hodge, Taryn

Jamal, Lana

Jones, Callie

Knopf, Gianna

Lebrando, Matthew

Lichtenwalner-Seabaugh, Milagros

Lienau, Erik

Marchese, Joseph

Mauro, Michael

Mooney, Peter

O'Brien, Elizabeth

O'Connor, Carly

O'dell, Samantha

Oswald, John

Paciariello, Ava

Pakkhesal, Pouya

Riordan, Conor

Robben, Isabella

Sanchez, Isabella

Sciabbarrasi, Lina

Senerchia, Sara

Smith, Arianna

Tartaglia, Michael

Twyman, Jewel

Valentine, Dana

Varga, Robert

Vargas, Jacqueline

Wiesen, Emily

Yang, Xiao

Teacher Artists

Heather Graessle

Eileen Rosenkampff

Liz Resta

Stacy Bernstein

Christina Connors