Aylmer art students recognized by community for creating their own cultural mosaic

Alessio Donnini · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

A radical of precocious schoolhouse students successful a agrarian southwestern Ontario municipality person created an creation installation meant to instill Canadian pridefulness and show the diversity the state is known for.

More than 30 students astatine East Elgin Secondary School successful Aylmer person already received designation from the section assemblage for their enactment to make a mural featuring paintings of students from each walks of life, a tangible illustration of the Canadian thought of a taste mosaic.

The mural, dubbed "On Guard for Thee," is made up of Canada flag-inspired self-portraits painted connected panels measuring conscionable implicit 100 cm by 70 cm. When enactment together, the portraits signifier a ample mural that measures astir five metres by six metres and uses colour to lucifer the Canadian flag.

"We person a pupil from Africa, a lad who is simply a exile from Ukraine, kids from Vietnam. This is conscionable successful our tiny classroom. They're each friends, they each worked unneurotic to execute this large thing," said Robert Ponzio, an creation teacher astatine the school.

"That's the large metaphor. This is virtually a taste mosaic of Canada."

The project wasn't conscionable an accidental to bespeak connected what it means to beryllium Canadian, Ponzio said. It besides helped the students turn arsenic artists and people.

"From my perspective, creation is a cosmopolitan language. These kids are learning however to speak," helium said.

The artwork made by the Grade 10 to 12 students, has been received good by the broader community. Before and aft seeing the paintings, Royal Canadian Legion branches successful Port Burwell and Aylmer donated $1,500 to the school's ocular creation program.

That designation is good deserved, successful Ponzio's opinion. He said the students enactment their hearts and souls into the artwork.
Grade 10 pupil Jane Hoffer said she and her classmates worked hard connected the paintings.

"I was hesitant astatine the commencement of the task due to the fact that it's my face, and it was blown up [in size]," she said.

It was a bully accidental to showcase her Canadian pride, particularly erstwhile it comes to the country's estimation arsenic a welcoming spot for all.

Being progressive successful the task was besides an accidental to conscionable and larn from members of the legion.

"It was amusive to spot radical who have fought for and done truthful galore things for Canada come and spot thing that benignant of reflects what they worked for," Hoffer said. "And talking to them and realizing that adjacent though we're generations apart, we're not excessively overmuch antithetic successful however thankful we are to beryllium successful Canada."

Grade 12 pupil Kristen Peters, similar her classmates, enactment months of enactment into her portion and went for a much realistic style.

"I deliberation it's amazing. I ne'er truly knew that we would get this acold successful the community, and I ever benignant of thought that it would enactment arsenic a people project, but I deliberation it's astonishing however acold it's come," Peters said.

Now that it's complete, the mural is acceptable for an ambitious future, including a expansive unveiling astatine Aylmer's Elgin Innovation Centre connected June 28 astatine 11 a.m.

After that, Ponzio said, his sights are acceptable connected displays successful Toronto and Ottawa.

"I deliberation it's thing that Canadians could payment from seeing. It's a reminder of what the taste mosaic of Canada is. It's not conscionable successful the cities, it's present successful the countryside, too," helium said.

It's a sentiment Aimee Sawyers, the caput of the school's creation department, agrees with.

"I anticipation that we tin support making things similar this happen for the schoolhouse and for our community. I deliberation [what the creation represents] is of nationalist value for each of us, and I deliberation that a batch of radical tin get excited and connected committee with it."