University of Minnesota Project

Community Service Project Brings Tile Design to Children

In May of 2009 David Aichinger was asked by the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, to come to their classroom and teach the children the art of tile mosaics. David worked with the teachers to develop a project that would show off the children’s creativity by having individual pieces that would be put together to create a larger art project. A tree was the decided project.  The children would each create a tiled mosaic leaf that would be combined with the other leaves to represent a tree.  The school decided that the best location of the art project was going to be at the rear entrance that gets used every day when the children go out to the playground and go for their walks.

In preparation for the project David pre-cut leaves of different shapes and sizes that the children would use to create their mosaics. He precut different shapes of leaves out of hardibacker.  Some of the leaves were larger and some where smaller giving the children options for size based on their level of creativity, patience, and devotion.   David provided all kinds of colors, shapes and mediums of tile for the kids to use.  They included ceramic, stone, glass, pebbles, mirrors and marbles.

On the day the project was to take place David was invited in to the classrooms to introduce himself and the project. He brought with him samples and described how to make the leaves and where the final project would be installed. David set up each station, assisted the children with color selection and tile placement. When the day was done David brought home the leaves to be grouted. He made a large drawing where he laid out all of the leaves to create the best layout. The drawing was later used as a guide during the installation. This was such a beneficial project to see young minds creating and how individual and different each leaf was. The teachers were very grateful for David to volunteer his time and materials to help create something long-lasting and special to the school.

For more images of artwork projects visit the "Artwork" portion of our project gallery page.