A clever project by teachers and students at Becker Middle School has resulted in a spectacular new installation in the school media center that brings together the disciplines of the arts, literature and science in an arresting format.

 

The lounge area in the media center is now graced by a massive new mural painted by Twin Cities artist Greg Preslicka, which gracefully combines elements of science and space, literature, construction equipment and the tools of the artist, all of which serve as a framework for the display of a wall-sized model of the Periodic Table of Elements created earlier in the year by BMS students and staff. Key staff roles were played by media specialist Holly Wieber and teachers Natalie Geier, Maria Hed, Kari Brant, Hokan Bengtson, Tracy Hare, Jenn Feierabend and Charlie Zimmer, the tech. ed. director on the project.

 

The model is the result of collaboration between art teacher Tracy Hare and science teacher Jenn Feierabend in which the science classes researched the information on each element, including the “atomic number” of each and the uses it has in science and manufacturing, and the art students then applied that information to create the individual pieces in the sculpture.

 

A total of 240 students were involved in the project, with classrooms trading information and images as the final blueprint of the installation came together.  The sculptural elements were created by staff and students using a laser router that had been procured earlier by Zimmer, who oversaw the creation of each piece by student artisans.

 

Finding the perfect place to display the collaborative artwork took more than a year, according to BMS Principal Nancy Helmer.  Heidi Preslicka, who is also her husband Greg’s project manager, had contacted the school to determine if there was any interest in a mural project there, an idea which quickly grew to include the new sculpture, Helmer said.  The final design process took almost a full year, Helmer said, with students voting enthusiastically for the version which now stands in the school.

 

Preslicka has done murals throughout the Twin Cities and in Wisconsin, and has had his work featured on Twin Cities Live and other media outlets.  He trained at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul and worked as an illustrator and graphic designer in advertising before embarking on a career as an artist.

 

His first murals were done in his children’s bedrooms, according to his biography, and the process expanded from there into his current career mode. To date, he has been commissioned to do more than 50 murals in libraries, schools and other facilities, and examples of those works and other paintings are featured on his website.