LV Council on the Arts completes ‘Grow’ mural at Ironwood Park

Last week, the Lebanon Valley Council on the Arts installed a mosaic mural themed around growth at Ironwood Community Park in Avon.

The ninth annual mosaic mural installed by the council, the piece was created by attaching tiles and broken pieces of glass to the walls after a general plan was laid out. Once the design was installed with the help of community volunteers, the LVCA applied grout to keep the pieces in place.

The mural was installed in the covered dining area at the park, which was established by the Ironwood Community Foundation 23 years ago. Though volunteers were shielded from the rain, last week’s heat and humidity also posed a challenge.

The mural was designed by Brooke Goodman, an art teacher who often brings her daughter to the park. The installation is focused around growth and shows the stages of life for a butterfly. She intended to depict things kids can see in their surroundings at the park, like the butterfly and a rainbow.

“Well, the kids and people that visit the site will appreciate it’s doing and this is relevant to the things they see in the park,” said park manager Nathan Fry. He said he thinks the piece will inspire kids to pay more attention to nature while they’re at the park.

Over 20 years ago, the wall (made of unpainted green block material) was defaced, which the park’s overseers struggled to fully remove. In addition to covering remnants of the graffiti, LVCA president Sharon Zook said, art pieces like this one serve as a deterrent to future defacement.

Though nine mosaic murals have been installed in this series, many of them in locations with a history of defacement, Zook said she can only think of one or two minor incidents that occurred since installation. These were easy to clean up, she said.

“The art brings a presence, there’s some kind of presence even if they’re the only person here,” said Zook. “They’re given pause before doing something; it somewhat says, ‘This is here, someone worked hard, and we need to respect it.’ It helps actually to clean up the whole area, more than just the wall.”

This year, she said, a woman volunteered who told her, years ago, she was a “problem child” at an installation, ordered to do so as community service. However, she chose to return to help out.

“She just wanted to help, she didn’t have to be here, no one was telling her to be here, but she wanted me to know that she was here because she wants to be here,” said Zook. “And she’s making other choices and engaging in the community, so it was good to see that come full circle.”

Volunteerism for murals and similar projects can build a sense of community and sense of shared ownership in community spaces, Zook said. She said she always welcomes people who are interested in serving community service with the art council.

“I believe that the more that people engage with the community through art, even if they don’t consider themselves an artist, they will have an opportunity to help give voice to the people in the community and hear feedback from the community,” she said.

“Obviously, every piece that’s up there used to be purposefully made for something else, and at some point, somebody took a hammer to it. I mean, we have lamps in there, we have dishes, plates, tiles that come from projects that they were gonna be thrown away. Everything breaks before it becomes whole and complete again, and it kind of mirrors life. A lot of times, things get broken before they come together in wholeness and completeness in some other form later on. How things are in this moment may not be how they exist for forever.”