The kids had earned a moment to sit on the bench. But most seemed more content to dance around it and show it off. This, after all is their masterpiece, the ArtBench, a mosaic bench of concrete and tile that Manitou Elementary School fifth graders spent about six weeks to build.
The kids and artists at Concrete Couch, a non-profit passionate about engaging the community to create public art, unveiled the bench at a party Thursday afternoon.
“We don’t really work with concrete or drills in our normal art class. We just draw and work with clay, so this is really fun,” says Brooke West, 10, who received a T-shirt award for attending every work session. “I just loved doing it.”
At the unveiling, the kids jammed out with the Concrete Couch Jam Band, composed mostly of high school musicians, and then explained to the crowd the process of making the bench: creating the tiles, maneuvering concrete-filled wheelbarrows, mortaring and grouting and smoothing.
“Kids get so excited to do this,” says Steve Wood, director of Concrete Couch. “There is this element of education for everyone when people see what kids can do with only imagination and opportunity.”
CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which ran in the Nov. 7, 2009 Gazette.
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