K-12 Connection

Tile Quilt:A Memorial to the World Trade Center

l1eevents of September 11wereparticularly traumatic for morethan 4,000 children who attended

school in the shadow of the WorldTrade Center. Temporarily evacuatedfrom their buildings, children from sixelementary, middle, and high schoolshad to find interim quarters until safetyand security concerns downtown couldbe adequately addressed.

La Mano Pottery, located in Chelsea,Manhattan, was in a unique position.The pottery studio was founded in 1998and is owned by a diverse communityof 12 potters - including myself, themother of a middle school studentdirectly affected by his school's proxim-ity to the terrorist attacks. La Mana hadalways welcomed kids and teens, andnow the partners found themselves inthe position to offer some comfort andassistance.

Intermediate School 89 was relocatedone block from La Mana for more thanfour months. At their temporary quar-ters, students shared space with stu-dents from two other middle schools.Although the environment was wel-coming, the kids and teachers weretruly displaced - no familiar meetingareas or lounges, new subway and busroutes to deal with, new lunch andafter-school routines, and unprecedent-ed changes in New YorkCity life ingeneral. Many of the children were also

BY MELISSA GREEN

A section of the Tile Quilt, created by La Mana Pottery and Intermediate School 89 in New Yorkas a memorial to the World Trade Center.

forced out of their homes and werescrambling with their families for inter-im housing. Fortunately, the physicalscars were minimal - the kids were allsafely evacuated - but the emotionalaspects of the tragedy were very realand disruptive.

La Mana Pottery offered a free after-school class for students, which was

quickly filled. The pot-tery also offered teachersa free pottery "mini"class - a place to comeand relax after school, becreative, and socializewith other faculty.During one of these ses-sions, art teacher JudyKamilar and I began todiscuss a permanentpiece of artwork thatcould be created by theIS 89 children and thecommunity as a memori-al to the WTC and anexpression of hope forthe future. The Tile Quiltproject was born.Clockwise from left: Les Taub; author and partner Melissa

Green; partner Jennifer Vondrak; and Harlan Green-Taubmount tiles on plywood at La Mano Pottery.

To reflect the theme, "Rebuilding ourCommunity," kids, teachers, and staffpainted and created mosaics on pre-made bisque tiles. Generous ceramicsuppliers, including Ceramic Supply ofNew York/New Jersey and Mayea,donated materials. Labor, kiln space,lumber, and other materials weredonated by La Mano, and additionalkiln space was volunteered by severalother neighborhood ceramics studios.

The participants in the project created300 tiles. They were painted and craftedover a five-month period, both inschool and at La Mana. Kamilarworked closely with her in-school artclasses, creating drafts of designs andencouraging new ways of looking at thetragedy and its aftermath. Tiles werepainted with Mayea Stroke 'n' Coatpaints, were clear glazed, and simplyfired to cone as.Mosaics were created from a variety ofmaterials found at the pottery studio bythe after-school participants and teach-ers. Due to various school regulations,

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Unveiling of the Tile Quilt at Intermediate School 89.

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Tile Quilt··· .

the tiles had to be mounted onto ply-wood backing first at the studio, thentransported to the school and drilledinto a concrete-and-tile wall. The tileswere cemented onto six panels, approx-imately 3 feet square, with 49 tiles each(six tiles were received late and mount-ed separately). Kristine Welch of LaMano and my husband, Les Taub, putin hours of tile laying and design timeon the project.

A common-area meeting wall at theschool was chosen for the installation.Here, students could gather and viewthe work at eye-level for years to come.Initial plans were to place pre-cut fram-ing around the exposed plywood bor-der, but this proved troublesome as theplywood cuts were unintentionallyuneven and the initial framing thereforeslightly mis-sized. Kamilars husband,carpenter Tim Britt, came to the rescueby designing a four-part framing sys-tem to surround each tile panel and cre-ate the illusion of uniformity. The obvi-ous lesson for future installations: Levelup the tiles themselves from the variouspanels; don't worry about leveling theactual backing material. It's easier tomake adjustments if the tiles are evenwith each other - small mistakes inmeasurements can be hidden withframing material that is slightly widerthan the plywood border left aroundthe tiles.

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The students returned to their building,located three blocks from Ground Zero,on January 19, 2002.An official dedica-tion ceremony was scheduled forMarch 21. Generous donations werereceived for catering, flowers, andmaterials, and a message sent from

NYCMayor Mike Bloomberg was readat the event. Colleen Carey, president ofMayco Colors, sent a particularly mov-ing e-mail message that was circulated .She thanked La Mano and the schoolcommunity for the opportunity givento Mayco employees to help out.

"Our employees are very happy to be apart of something so wonderful. At thetime of the tragedy, we had a true senseof helplessness here in Ohio in that wewere not close enough to help, exceptwith prayers and donations. To knowthat we participated in such a wonder-ful project in memorial of those livesimpacted and lost as well as in celebra-tion of the spirit and hope your cityand our country showed is gratifying,"wrote Carey.

Although the tile dedication wasattended by a number of local digni-taries, the real stars were the childrenand the tiles. The artwork speaks vol-umes about what the children andteachers went through as they wereevacuated in the midst of chaos, andbonded together to form a strongercommunity. The south end of the hall,where the tiles are on permanent dis-play, overlooks Ground Zero. As day-light fades to dark, two temporarymemorial towers of bright blue lightreach to the sky.The tile installationprovides an emotional counterpoint ofboth memory and vision to those tow-ers, as seen through the eyes of childrenand teachers who were witnesses to amoment when our world changed .•Melissa Green is a lifelong New Yorker and oneof 12 partners at La Mana Pottery in Chelsea,Manhattan. Visit lamanopottery.com, or e-mailinfo@lamanopottery.com.

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