Sarah Pruys
When Nicole Renberg, an occasional teacher at Robert Moore, was approached by principal Dianne Thompson to create a piece of artwork to welcome people to the school, she took it a step further and decided to make it into a project involving the entire school.
She looked online for ideas, and when she found a picture of a mosaic she realized that it was something she could get everyone involved in.
“I made up a PowerPoint presentation [about the proposed project] and gave it to Cam Keast, the VP [vice-principal], and he said I could do it,” she explained.
“I asked the students if they could paint something positive about what Robert Moore means to them,” added Renberg. “On the PowerPoint presentation, I had examples of murals and what a mosaic is, and all the history behind it.”
Following the lesson, “the whole month of May the students painted, and then this month was spent putting it together,” she noted.
Jim Easton, a carpenter, framed it.
“He did a really good job,” said Renberg. “I was blown away by it, I was really impressed.
“His dad, Bill Easton was the one who cut 432 blocks. It’s all on wood,” she added.
Renberg tried six different colour schemes, but this one, she said, “it just popped, it was just beautiful and vibrant.”
Renberg drew out an example first, and numbered each block and assigned a name to that number. She then assigned two colours to that number. The first colour was the dominant colour, and the second colour was the accent colour.
“So I did that 432 times. It took a month of planning,” she explained. “‘B’ for blue, and ‘y’ for yellow.
“All the primary kids had the outside stuff, and the intermediate students had the inside tiles,” added Renberg. “The Early Learning students did the handprints and the people.”
In total, it took three and a half months with the planning, Renberg remarked.
“But it’s so worth it, because it’s beautiful,” she said. “I’m just so impressed, and proud of the students, they did a wonderful job.”
The students, she said, “…keep coming up and hugging me and thanking me. They all really enjoyed it.”
Ariana Indian, a Grade 4 student, said that the project was, “Fun. I like how they put it into a mustang.”
Her friend and classmate Aurora McRitchie-Meadows added, “It’s very creative; it’s so cool how they got everyone and how they put it together. It was nice.”
Renberg continued, “Brad Houghton [the manager at North American Lumber] donated basically everything.”
“A great big ‘thank you’ needs to go out to that man, because I’m just really impressed with how much they were able to donate,” she added. “He donated the wood, the stain, and the glue, and the paint.”
Now that it is finished, the artwork is waiting to be hung above the music room, vibrant and visible to anyone who visits the school.
“There’s a ‘Welcome to Robert Moore’ sign to go above it, and there’s a sign below that will say ‘Where We All Come Together [the title of the artwork],” Renberg added.
“When I put it together for the first time I ended up standing there for an hour looking at it. You start looking at one tile and it just leads you into the next one,” she pointed out.
“Thank you to the students and staff and principal for allowing me to do this,” added Renberg.
Principal Thompson was pleased with the end result.
“I think it’s really impressive, and that it really captures the heart of Robert Moore; the fact that ever individual is represented together—they make the whole community,” she remarked.
“Last year we did the school quilt, and that represented everybody in the school,” added Thompson. “This year we have the mural that represents everyone … and ‘Rachel’s Challenge’…so now we’re thinking, what are we going to do that will be representative of everyone?”
Thompson said she would like to see a project done every year that brings the student community of Robert Moore together and unifies the students through something that represents them all.
“We’ll be looking at the beautification and completion of our school campus, so that is a vision forward,” Thompson explained.
She added that she has been in contact with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Stewardship Program for help with beautifying the campus outside, while Renberg mentioned that she had other ideas for things the school could do indoors next year.
