Library welcomes community mosaic

The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library welcomed the permanent installation of a community mosaic at the Downtown Huntsville Library on Tuesday, August 28.

"This is one of those wonderful opportunities where we can showcase the talent in our community," said Connie Chow, Downtown's branch manager. "We are honored to be able to display this for all to enjoy."

“Beauty From Brokenness” is a triptych artwork created from glass tiles from the original “Cosmic Christ” mosaic commissioned by Huntsville’s First Baptist Church in the early 1970s. Local artist Stephen Ware was one of three Huntsvillians to assist Texas-based artist Gordon William Smith with the original mosaic installation in the 1970s.

In spring 2018, Ware created a loose sketch of downtown Huntsville as the basis for a new mosaic triptych that was created by the community at Arts Huntsville’s Panoply Arts Festival.

Over 10,000 community members — children and adults — placed glass tiles in this artwork at Panoply 2018, and volunteers from First Baptist coordinated the project throughout the weekend. This beautiful new interpretation of downtown Huntsville, created by the community itself from an iconic public artwork, will be enjoyed by all those who created it and the community at large.

The artwork was donated to the City of Huntsville by First Baptist Church Huntsville, in partnership with Arts Huntsville, for permanent exhibition at the Downtown Huntsville Library.

The public is invited to view the mosaic, located on the first floor in the multimedia section.