It was by all accounts an ambitious art project for Longfellow Elementary School, one that took four years, hundreds of Oak Park students and thousands of pounds of cement. But more than a decade later, the mosaic, which depicts the village’s history dating back to the Stone Age, is sitting in one mom’s basement, rather than being displayed in all of its splendor.
But that mom, Sharon Patchak-Layman, along with former Longfellow art teacher Christine Worley, are attempting to resurrect the mural. They’re asking village hall to kick in funds to help install it somewhere, and are eyeing future fundraisers to accumulate the $40,000-plus, it would cost to install the piece.
“I’m very frustrated, but right now I have hope for it,” said Worley, who now teaches art at Percy Julian Middle School. “The sixth-grade students that worked on it have graduated from college.”
Patchak-Layman’s son, Micah, was a kindergartener at Longfellow when the project started around the fall of 2000, and is now a freshman in college. The primary workers were in fifth and sixth grade, but students in every grade lent their hand before it was finished in around 2004.
Kindergarteners washed stones to go in the concrete pieces for the base of the project. Fourth graders drew pictures of old-time Oak Park. Sixth graders researched what the village looked like in prehistoric times.
Patchak-Layman, along with fellow mom Mary Pat Bakker, filled out the grant application that got the school money to pay an in-house artist to oversee the project. And later on, they applied for and won some $45,000 in Community Development Block Grants, to help fund an ambitious redo of the Longfellow grounds, which included adding several other amenities.
But when the school went out for bids for the work, the lowest offer was $140,000, including $50,000 for the installation, according to Patchak-Layman, who was also a District 97 board member from 1999 to 2007 and who, since then has served on the school board at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
“It kind of just stopped at that point,” and the next year, the neighborhood didn’t qualify for block grants.
It’s languished since then. In 2006, Longfellow decided that it needed more room, and the 100 or so mosaic tile pieces, affixed to pieces of cardboard, were transported to Patchak-Layman’s basement. Then when the district started talking about selling its warehouse, the more than 400 cement blocks of pebble mosaic were transported to her home, too, and currently sit in the alley behind her backyard.
Last week, Patchak-Layman pulled out the art pieces from her home and lovingly showed them to Wednesday Journal. Colorful tile pieces depict key moments in Oak Park’s history, from prehistoric times all the way up to 2002. The mosaics are envisioned to be affixed to five concrete columns, ranging in height from 8 feet to 12 feet tall.
The pebble mosaics, then, would get laid into the ground around the columns, making for a plaza about 1,200 square feet in size.
Over the years, they’ve explored other places to install the artwork, from the new Public Works Center on South Boulevard, to Barrie Park, to the Children’s Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. But nothing fit and money is scarce.
Through it all, though, Patchak-Layman has stayed positive.
“There is a place for it and it will happen,” she said. “It’s beautiful, and it’s held up very well.”
Last year, Worley brought the topic up to Oak Park’s Public Arts Advisory Commission, a volunteer citizen panel that she is also a member of. Months later they’re urging the village to donate some seed money, maybe $32,000, to help install it somewhere.
Loretta Daly, the business service manager for the village, briefed elected officials on the mural earlier this month, and suggested that Oak Park could contribute $20,000 toward the effort. The full village board is yet to be consider the suggestion.
Worley said they’re planning to lay out the mural at the old village-owned Volvo dealership on Madison Street in the coming weeks. They’d like to determine its condition and show it off to the public to help kick start a possible fundraising effort.
“Hopefully people will get excited about it and find it interesting and worth pursuing,” said David Sokol, the head of the Public Arts Advisory Commission.
They’ve also reached out to the administration at District 97, which has expressed some interest in bringing the mural to life.
“The mosaics were part of an elementary school project that began many years ago; so, most of the children who worked on it are now students at OPRF High School or are enrolled in college,” Superintendent Al Roberts said in an emailed statement. “As a result, the prominent display of these treasured pieces would honor past talents and inspire future generations of budding artists. While funding is likely to be a challenge, this project offers a unique opportunity to celebrate the creativity that makes Oak Park a special place to live and work.”
