Ceramic flowers grace elementary school yard to commemorate pandemic workers
While the Lyons Elementary School is surrounded by daffodils in spring and irises in summer each year, there is something new this month. Over 250 ceramic flowers were installed outside of Lyons Elementary this week, May 12-13, to honor frontline worker and lives lost during COVID-19.
In a partnership between the school staff and students and the PTO, an initiative blossomed. During art class throughout the school year 2020-21, students created individual ceramic wildflowers. Now that the ground has thawed, the project could be completed. First, rebar stems were hammered into the ground. Then holes were drilled in the ceramic flowers. And, finally parent volunteers came and helped the children display their art. All students in the school participated, divided into four groups over two days.
“The Remembrance Garden is a school wide art installation aimed to solidify our respect and acknowledgement of all front line workers, all who were lost, and all we have learned as individuals and as a community during this global pandemic,” said principal Andrew Moore. “This beautiful garden was the inspiration of our incredible art teacher, Elena Danilescu-Russ. In support of the project were countless volunteers, led by Claudia Paterno, and ‘planted’ with the help of Andy Doering. What we leave behind should be more beautiful than what we first encountered.”
Art teacher, Elena Danilescu-Russ, saw a Remembrance Garden at the 2014 Tower of London’s “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” public art installation. It marked the 100-year anniversary of World War I and commemorated the people lost. She brought that idea to the staff and some parents. She said, “It would be commemorating the people who died due to COVID-19, and to honor first responders — that many students have in their own families as a family member — nurses, doctors, policemen, firefighters and volunteers. All those people that put their lives day by day on the line for others.” It was gladly approved. In the classroom, she guided the children in shaping the flowers out of clay, and then painting them in whatever color they chose.
The teacher saw it as a kind of art therapy. After the Great Flood of 2013, the teachers did an art project to let the students release their feelings, as well as create a remembrance of the experience that was helpful. They did an art mural of photographs on the school wall, and then published their poems/comments and art in a book. (The two elementary and high school books are available at the Redstone Museum). The students commented on how the flowers will help them remember in years to come how difficult and yet rewarding the year of COVID-19 restrictions was on both their school and home life.
“In the classrooms in the morning, we would talk about the impact COVID has had on their lives,” said Principal Andrew Moore. “Then we would bring up what they’ve learned, how they’ve grown.”
NOTE: these photographs were provided by the parent teacher group, with the approval of the school staff. If you took any of the photographs and would like your name added in the credit line, please write LyonsRecorder.Editor@gmail.com