Waterloo Elementary School unveils 117-foot mosaic mural born from 400 community sketches
Education
A close-up section of the mural shows the two-register design: individual ceramic tile drawings along the top, contributed by secondary school students, and the panoramic lower section depicting a drive through Waterloo’s landmarks. More than 1,200 handcrafted tiles were shaped from raw clay, glazed, fired, and broken by hand before being assembled into the finished work. (Photos courtesy Waterloo Elementary School/Facebook)
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A 117-foot mosaic mural depicting a journey through the heart of Waterloo now graces the fence in front of Waterloo Elementary School, the culmination of a three-month community art project that drew in hundreds of students, volunteers, and residents — and was unveiled on May 14 to a crowd of roughly 400 people who stood in the rain to watch it happen.
The project was conceived and led by Allison Lampron, the school’s art specialist, who worked alongside three artists — Isabelle Marissal, a mosaicist who served as project coordinator, along with ceramists Michel-Louis Viala and Sara Mills — to create a work made entirely from scratch. More than 1,200 handcrafted ceramic tiles were shaped from raw clay, glazed, fired, broken by hand, and then assembled into tesserae and mounted onto marine-wood panels along the school fence.
“The community showed up,” said principal Donald Kerr in a follow-up interview. Roughly 400 people turned out in front of the school, he and Lampron confirmed — standing in the rain, waiting for the unveiling.
From graffiti problem to community masterpiece
The idea emerged from a practical problem. The school’s exterior wall had been tagged with graffiti, and Lampron and Kerr wanted something that would discourage further vandalism while transforming the space. Mosaic was the answer — and once the concept was set, a new challenge arose. The town flagged that snow plows would damage artwork mounted too low, so the mural was repositioned higher, onto the fence.
400 drawings, one road through Waterloo
What makes the mural particularly remarkable is its origins. In January, Lampron organized a community-wide brainstorming session, distributing art activity worksheets to students across Waterloo’s schools and community groups. By mid-January, she had collected more than 400 drawings and sketches from across the town, each representing what Waterloo meant to the people who made them — favourite places, meaningful stories, cherished activities.
“When we put them side by side, it just happened that there was like a road — as if you’re in a car and you’re driving through Waterloo,” Lampron explained. That image became the organizing principle for the mural’s lower register, which traces a visual path beginning near Sheppard and winding through the town’s key landmarks before ending at the beach and a sunset over Lac Waterloo.
The upper portion of the mural features 232 individual tile drawings contributed largely by secondary school students who wanted their own distinct images represented.
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550 students, 50 volunteers, an entire town
In total, participation was extraordinary: roughly 550 students from Waterloo’s elementary and secondary schools contributed, alongside more than 50 volunteers — including members of the Cercle de fermières de Waterloo and the Centre d’action bénévole aux 4 vents — as well as the town council, the school board’s director’s committee, members of the Royal Canadian Legion, workers and residents from Maison de la culture, and homeschooling families who helped organize and sort hundreds of drawings.
Roughly 400 students, families, and community members gather in front of Waterloo Elementary School ahead of the unveiling ceremony on May 14, the mural still covered in white sheeting behind them. The crowd braved a rainy afternoon to witness the reveal of the project, which involved more than 550 students and 50 volunteers over three months of work.
Clay to ceremony: three months of work
The production timeline was relentless. February and early March were devoted to making the tiles — shaping clay, glazing, and firing. April was all mosaic work. The ETSB grounds crew handled installation in early May, cutting the four-by-eight-foot marine-wood panels to match the artwork’s curves and mounting them securely to the fence. “They were outstanding,” Lampron said. “They made sure it was solid, that it wouldn’t get broken.”
The project was made possible through funding from the Eastern Townships School Board, the Centre de services scolaires du Val-des-Cerfs, Quebec’s La culture à l’école program, the City of Waterloo, Entraide jeunesse François Godbout, and the Volunteer Support Initiative under Minister Isabelle Charest. The City of Waterloo contributed more than $4,000 toward artist fees and community workshops. The inauguration on May 14 also featured a free concert by Adam El Mouna, grand prize winner of the 2025 Festival international de la chanson de Granby, in collaboration with the Maison de la culture de Waterloo.
Built to last — and soon, to play
The mural is built to last. The marine wood backing, professional installation, and protective measures are designed to keep it in place indefinitely.
The completed mosaic mural stretches along the fence in front of Waterloo Elementary School following its unveiling on May 14. The 117-foot work, mounted on marine-wood panels above the schoolyard fence line, is visible from the street corner in its full extent.
Lampron is already thinking about what comes next — not another mural, she laughed, but something complementary. She plans to create a plaque with a scannable QR code that will let visitors, especially children, interact with the artwork through a scavenger hunt game on their phones, finding hidden images embedded across the 117-foot expanse.
For now, the mural stands as a testament to what a school and a small town can build when they work together. “When you walk into the school, it’s very creative — there’s art a little bit everywhere,” Lampron said. It’s been five years of major annual art projects at Waterloo Elementary, but this one, stretching the full length of the schoolyard fence, is something else entirely.
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