May 29, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Glen Rock Byrd School mural created by multiple artists by John Koster The new 8 by 12 foot mural unveiled this month at Glen Rock’s Byrd School involved the contributions of a professional mural artist and a great many talented students and adult friends. The $6,000 outside grant that made the project possible allowed for integration of science, social studies, research, and art processes with a concentration on fourth grade students creating the design. At the Byrd School, all students kindergarten through grade five and the school staff, community members, and parents created the tiles that created the mural. “They designed it with Admiral Byrd saluting, penguins, orcas, and other things that he might have seen on his voyage,” Glen Rock art teacher Connie Cipolla explained. Kit Salier, a professional artist with nearly 40 years of mural experience, came to the school on a monthly basis and worked on the project with the student and adult artists. The students researched the adventures and exploits of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, The new 8 by 12 foot mural at Byrd School. drew sketches of Byrd and of the sea creatures he saw in or near Antarctica, and then made clay tiles and baked them in a kiln to harden them and fix their colors before grouting them to a mesh into a cohesive work of art. The mural was created to celebrate Byrd’s pioneering flight over the South Pole in 1929. The project started when Cipolla wrote an Arts in Education grant last year and was delighted when the project she described was awarded $6,000 in funding to create the ceramic mosaic mural. The Glen Rock Board of Education and the Byrd School Dance Program contributed the matching funds needed to qualify for the grant, which is carried out through a partnership between the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and a consortium made up of Arts Horizons and Young Audiences in America, along with the Geraldine Dodge Foundation.