Written by Riley Hutchings
Concrete Couch has been uniting communities in art-focused projects since 1990. At Colorado College, the group’s next big mission is a 120 foot by 4 foot mosaic tile mural on the retaining wall behind the Penrose library building. Concrete Couch is working with five different community Hub Groups to construct welded steel relief tile mosaic panels over the course of 10 weeks. The group will be installing the panels in April and doing additional tile mosaic directly on the wall afterwards.
Colorado College is one of the community Hub Groups through the Collaborative for Community Engagement and Innovation Institute.
CC’s community Hub Group began first Tuesday of Block 6 and finishes Block 8. The group meets from 6-7:30 in the Morreale Carriage House on Tuesday nights.
The sessions are free and open to all students, friends, and neighbors in the local community. Participants will learn how to make tile mosaics, create tile out of clay, and have the opportunity to learn how to weld. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to participate in the larger Colorado Springs community and contribute to a high-profile public art project.
CC Public Interest Fellowship Program fellow Alexandra Drew said, “Participants do not need to be artists or identify as ‘creative.’ We love having geologists, sociologists, anthropologists, outdoorsy folk, theater kids, shy people, and outgoing personalities. The more the better. We need many viewpoints to create an outstanding piece of art.”
On Tuesday, March 29, the group worked on filling in the gaps in their design with brightly colored tiles. The meeting started with introductions consisting of each member’s name and a “storm story,” automatically creating a community feel. Director Steve Wood proceeded to divide the group into experienced tile-makers and newcomers. The newest members started their mosaic-making training led by Drew.
Some kids put on their protective goggles and headed over to the tile-smashing area, then got to work using wrenches to break the various tiles. Others began using mortar to stick pre-cut tiles onto small squares of plaster.
“It’s a dragon,” a nine-year-old boy said, referencing his half-completed piece of plaster. “I tried making the big dipper and other stuff before, when we were doing clay.” He had been to the Concrete Couch a few times before, and it was clear that he knew his way around the place.
Community members ranging from six to sixty got their hands dirty in an effort to beautify Colorado Springs. The experienced members worked on the mural. In the last session, everyone had created small pottery objects that filled large pieces of plaster.
Each member carefully applied mortar then stuck tiles onto the plaster between the lumps of clay. “The work had to be done properly,” said Wood, “or the pieces would fall off with the weather.”
The process includes wetting the plaster, then wiping mortar on it and on a tile, and then wiggling the tile around and applying pressure to make sure it sticks.
Next week, the newcomers who worked on their small plasters will graduate to contributing to the larger task. With their help the mural should be complete by the first week of May.
The Penrose Library project is not Concrete Couch’s only project. They host music jams, skill sharing workshops, lantern parades, and much more. All of their projects revolve around bringing communities together, and by the looks of this gathering, it’s working.
“Thirty years from now we can all look at the wall and go: Remember when we did that together?” a mother of three said of the project.