Mosaic Making at the Palace

I stopped by the Palace Theater this morning to get some photos of the mosaic project. The final product will be a very large mosaic which will be mounted to the side of a building on South Main Street downtown.


The mosaic was designed by artists Joanne and Bruce Hunter. It is made up of 60 panels, each of which measures 3 feet by 5 feet. The tiles are being adhered to the panels by hundreds of volunteers from Waterbury and the arts community (I saw a group of volunteers from Brookfield's The Art Spot today).


Volunteers have been working on the stage of the Palace Theater, seven hours a day, for nine days. The daily schedule is broken into shifts to make it easier on the volunteers and to allow more people to participate.


The mosaic will be unveiled during a block party celebration on South Main Street downtown, Tuesday, June 26, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A full stage of volunteers!

The mosaic will be placed permanently on the large brick wall in the center of this
photograph, making this stretch of downtown much more appealing.

Completed panels hidden from view, so that the final design will be a surprise when it is unveiled on June 26.

The artists' design on paper and as a mosaic.

Whenever a panel was completed, everyone on stage cheered.

The process is a little bit like paint-by-numbers: each panel has the color-coded design laid out,
in many cases with the name of the color, making it easier for volunteers to figure out what goes where.

Buckets of tiles with their colorful names on the sides.

Messy work!

Where it all came from: the City of Waterbury and the Arts and Culture Collaborative (ACC) of the Greater Waterbury Chamber of Commerce Foundation were chosen by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) to participate in the state's City Canvases Initiative.  City Canvases is a one-time program to enhance public spaces through the commissioning of large-scale works of public art which help shape dynamic spaces and create livable, vibrant communities that attract economic development.


The project also includes numerous sponsors to cover all the costs. A total of 60 sponsorships, at $1,250 each, were available.