grant supports project
at intermediate school
Educational foundation
grant supports project
at intermediate school
By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT Freehold Intermediate School pupils painted three-dimensional images of famous paintings on raw tile and pieced them together to create a mural for the lobby of the Freehold Borough school. A timeline from cave art to modern art is represented on 36 different tiles.
FREEHOLD — Leslie Daley’s special art gifted and talented students at the Freehold Intermediate School, Park Avenue, will have more than just memories to take with them when they leave the school.
They’ll take with them the knowledge that they have, in essence, left their "hand prints" on the walls of their alma mater.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in the art program were able to leave a legacy for future generations of pupils through the use of a $750 grant provided by the Freehold Borough Educational Foundation.
Daley said she received the foundation grant in September and students worked all year to craft and paint the special clay tiles that now make up a mural in the school lobby.
JEFF GRANIT Tile layer Michael Minutillo helps student Joshua Hoffman prepare to apply a hand-painted tile to the lobby wall of the Freehold Intermediate School, Freehold Borough. The tile is part of a mural created by students in an art class for gifted and talented youngsters.
The mural, designed by Daley, is made up of individual tiles. Each student painted his or her own rendering of a famous work of art or chose a specific culture to represent.
According to Daley, each pupil was responsible for hand-painting four separate tiles to make a design. The pupils molded the clay for the tile themselves.
Daley said the pupils were able to create three-dimensional designs by sculpting their raw designs on the clay tile before it was fired.
Faces, therefore, have depth, and flowers are individually crafted and "touchable." All of the designs were made three-dimensional by the pupil’s own hand.
Represented from the art field were notable works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Claude Monet’s Bridges, Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Also represented were images from the African-American, Egyptian, Greek and Japanese cultures.
Daley said she created an art timeline as a model for the mural. Beginning with cave art, the timeline moves through pre-Colombian, Greek, Egyptian and African art to Japanese, Chinese and Mexican art before working its way up through Renaissance and Impressionist art to modern artists such as Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Faith Ringold and Khi Johnson, a 13-year-old soon-to-be eighth-grader at the intermediate school who designed and crafted athree-dimensional cityscape.
The project involved 32 students combining their talents to create 36 tiles that make up the mural.
In addition to meeting once a week in Daley’s class to create the tiles, Daley said the pupils did more than just create art: They learned about the original work and then shared their artists’ stories with one another.
Michelle Folvar chose to paint Lady in a Kimono. Michelle, 14, who graduated from the school in June, said she’s always been "inspired" by Japanese art.
"It speaks to me," she said, adding that the project was fun because Daley allowed her pupils creative expression without any restrictions.
Frank Santoriello chose Roman culture for his tile art.
A fan of Greek mythology and Roman works, Frank, 13, who is also a recent intermediate school graduate, chose The Roman Horseman for his piece.
Both students chose designs they located on the Internet.
Daley said the 7-by-7-foot mural, which was professionally installed by Michael Minutillo, would not have been possible without the grant from the foundation.
The purpose of the foundation is to provide teachers with funds to pay for projects that the school district could not otherwise pay for.
The project, according to Daley, fits the criteria the foundation requires — to enhance student learning and involve the community in some way.
"This mural will provide a legacy for all the future students of Freehold Borough schools," the teacher said.