A ‘Musical’ Work Of Art Taking Shape At Sandy Hook School

By Eliza Hallabeck

Using glue, broken tile, and their hands, all staff and students at Sandy Hook School will have helped create a new art installation for the elementary school by the end of this week, according to Assistant Principal Jennifer Sinal.

The project, overseen by Art Spot of Danbury co-owners and husband and wife duo Bruce and Joanne Hunter, started on Monday, and, when finished, will be a five-panel representation of Pablo Picasso’s 1921 painting “Three Musicians.” This is the second mosaic mural the Art Spot has helped create in Newtown. Last year Mr Hunter helped Head O’ Meadow create a reproduction of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

Sandy Hook School art teacher Leslie Gunn said she and a number of people on a committee chose “Three Musicians” last year as the school’s mosaic. According to Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the final product will be hung in the school’s cafeteria.

“I love the fact that it is a community project,” said Ms Gunn.

In order to have each student take part in the project, Ms Hochsprung said a special schedule was worked out. She has already glued her tile to the mosaic, and said she is proud to have her mark be the round end of the clarinet in the painting.

Grouting the mosaic started on Wednesday.

When a group of students entered the art room on Tuesday, September 21, to add their hands to the project, Ms Hunter explained, “What we are doing is a copy of a painting for your school.”

Ms Hunter told the students the Art Spot began by painting the background of the five panels to know where each color tile should go. Then tiles were hammered and smashed into smaller pieces to start work on the project.

The project is sponsored by the school’s PTA.