SWITZ CITY — Children, local history, storytelling and public art have converged in the center of rural America this summer in the form of a 110-panel, locally cast aluminum mural created mostly by Greene County elementary school students.
The 10-pound 12- by 12-inch blocks were made this past year by children and community members. Every first-through fifth-grade classroom in Greene County etched a scratch block mold that later was poured with molten metal at the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum near Solsberry.
When the blocks were laid end to end in three rows and assembled, the result was a recreation of Bloomfield artist Wyatt LeGrand’s design for the mural, a half-scale painting depicting places and industries that make Greene County unique.
The mural sculpture is one of 2,550 Legacy Projects being undertaken around the state as Indiana, established in 1816, celebrates its bicentennial.
Eleven-year-old Nolan Hughes was among dozens of students and families who attended a community picnic and aluminum pour event Wednesday evening at Greene County’s 4-H Fairgrounds to celebrate the mural.
He had helped create a block in Mrs. Medina’s fourth-grade class this past school year and wanted to see the finished sculpture, hung by drywall screws and anchored to the wall as the centerpiece in the main entrance at the Community Event Center at the fairgrounds in Switz City.
“We used nails to follow the lines on the design. Everybody got a turn,” Nolan said.
He found his class block, which depicts the backside of a seated artist painting a wildlife scene, right away. “It looks pretty good.”