"EACH OF US PUTS IN ONE LITTLE STONE, AND THEN YOU GET A GREAT MOSAIC"
Alice Paul , social reformer

The Takoma Mosaic Project was completed in the spring of 2009 on the wall of the Takoma Park Maryland library. The following essay by a then 10 year-old participant tells the story of our process:

The Wall
By Natalie Gradwohl
What is a wall but a form of protection from the elements? How could a wall ever change lives? The wall of the library has changed lives in many ways. It was all because of six letters: a, c, i, o, m, and s which make up the word “mosaic”. People of all age, race, and gender who worked on the mosaic shared something: the irrevocable obsession of making mosaics.
            The project was like a leaf. The leaf starts out plain green in the beginning of spring. Then, after long months of greenness, a patina of old age is acquired and little brown and gold spots start to appear in summer. Slowly the leaves are peppered with vibrant colors when they are under the spell of fall. Slowly the boring and mundane brick wall became a masterpiece.
            For me, it all started on a rainy day when my mother dragged me from my normal Saturday routine to check out “some mosaic class”. Timidly, we traced our first project on to netting and began to place tiles like it was a second nature. After completing this azalea, I knew that it was going to be more than “some mosaic class”.
            We came and helped more and more, every day it was possible. I would go check every day to see if the head artist Arturo was “on the wall”. Once, my mother and I went to check to see if people were working.  We were so happy to see that people were working that even my old mother was cavorting and dancing around like a child.
            After all the work was done, I had put in over 50 hours on the project. I had also made many new friends. Of course there are the amazing head artists: Laurie, Arturo, and Alice but I have also befriended art.
            According to Encarta Dictionary, a mosaic is “a picture or design made with small pieces of colored material such as glass or tile stuck onto a surface” but I also think a mosaic is a way of expressing yourself and your feelings in a concrete form. This project was a concrete stepping stone in my life and without it, I would not be living the way I am now. True artists are not rich in money but rich in soul.

This project is being lead by the local nonprofit Art For The People in conjunction with The City of Takoma Park & The Takoma Foundation of the Montgomery County Community Foundation.