Community Corner

Student Public Art Project Puts New Animals on the Laurel Street Bridge

The most repeated word on the Laurel Street Bridge the past two days was "Thanks."

Passersby, including Vice Mayor Lynn Robinson, stopped to say it to the Mission Hill Middle School students who completed a huge public art project, posting 90 mosaics of local ocean lifeforms, from lowly anemone to giant whales.

This is the third year and the third bridge that art teacher Kathleen Crocetti has covered with her students' work. The Water Street Bridge has mosaics of flowers and the Soquel Bridge features crops from Santa Cruz. The subjects are voted on by students, then they are drawn and the best ones picked by vote to be turned into mosaics, using leftover glass from Crocetti's art supplies.

The other most commonly said thing on the bridge was "I never noticed those before."
 
But once they saw them,  people said, they would never go over any of the three bridges without noticing again. 

Crocetti raised money for the projects through donations and the city gives her the space on the bridges and money. This year, through its public art funding, Santa Cruz gave $2,000. It also pays staff to work on planning the project and to regularly power wash the art.

With no other bridges left, Crocetti's  plan for the future is to cover posts around the San Lorenzo River with art.

Robinson, who thanked the students without saying who she was, recalled making a mosaic at her elementary school in Campbell 40 years ago and the power of permanence it could instill.

She recently checked...and yup, it's still there.




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