When you walk into Susan Ross’ West Cape May studio, there are bins and bins of tiles in all sorts of shapes and colors. Starfish tiles, Sand-colored tiles, round sky-blues tiles, round ocean-blue tiles, and oblong earth-toned tiles with people of all ages and backgrounds holding hands and dancing. This latter happens to be the logo for the Center for Community Arts (CCA) and is the lynchpin for the Cape Island Community Mural. The mosaic mural will greet visitors as they enter the foyer of the newly renovated Franklin Street School Community Cultural Center when it opens sometime in 2008.

The concept of a community mural is the brainchild of consultant Karen Singer and Susan Ross. The two came up with the idea while trying to figure out a clever way to honor their major donors.

“When I visualized this project,” said Susan, who has been involved with CCA since its inception 10 years ago. “I wanted something which would say this is where they would live. I wanted a multi-generational project that would bring the community together.”

And bring them together it did. Nearly half of the tiles were made by members of the community, either local or summer-time residents, tourists feeling a bit artsy-craftsy or kids looking for a way to pass the summer. Susan Ross conducted 32 tile-making workshops beginning July 5th and ending in August. The workshops ran the gamut from how to make the tiles to how to glaze the tiles. Susan, herself will do the actual installation. She will spend the coming year making the remainder of the larger tiles. The design depicts Cape Island, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Delaware Bay with the City of Cape May, Cape May Point and West Cape May depicted in between.

“I tried to keep it (the buildings and houses) anonymous,” said Susan. “I want the church to be everybody’s church and not single out anyone one particular church or house.”

As in any community project, many people and organizations jumped in to help make it work. Cape May Elementary School, for example, donated the use of their space and their kiln to glaze the ceramic tiles. It was community concern in the first place over the deterioration of the Franklin Street School which first led CCA to actively pursue efforts to persuade the state of New Jersey to designate the school, built in 1927 as a segregated elementary school for the city’s African-American children, an African American Historic Site. In 2002, CCA signed an agreement with the City of Cape May to lease the school for 25 years for a nominal sum. Cape May’s Department of Civic Affairs rents back the gym for its programs at no charge. In exchange, CCA agreed to undertake the necessary renovations, which were and are extensive.

Thus began a $3.5 million, four-phase program which is funded by state, federal and private grants, as well as gifts from individuals and businesses. Phase I began and ended in 2004 with removal of environmental hazards and interior demolition, much to the dismay of the pigeons who had grown accustom to calling the school home. Phase II is currently underway and will not conclude until next year. It involves repair and replacing structural beams, windows and doors and restoring the masonry. Phases III and IV will begin next year and end in 2008. CCA Executive Director Steve Bacher hopes the doors will open fall 2008.

The center will also honor the memory of all those taught and attended Franklin Street School. Last year, CapeMay.com spoke with Emily Dempsey who remembered attending Franklin Street School with fondness. There were only three classrooms in the segregated school, she said. When Emily was a student, Mrs. Cordelia Howard taught grades K through 2nd grade. Mrs. Florence Porter taught grades 3 through 6th. And the principal, Mrs. Owens, taught grades 6, 7, and 8.

Although Emily, whose older sister Florence graduated with the last segregated class in 1948, “didn’t feel deprived at all,” the subtleties, and in some cases, not so subtle aspects of segregation were not lost on the small Afro-American community. Franklin Street Elementary, for example was a much newer building than Cape May High School, located around the corner on Washington Street. Franklin Street School was built with a beautiful gym. But that gym was meant for the white high school students next door. The kids at Franklin Street Elementary School were not permitted to use the gym except on rainy days at recess. Even then, they had to go outside to gain access to the gym.

In fact, according to Steve Bacher, the school was designed architecturally so that no door could be used to connect the school to the gym. The gym, he said is on the ground floor but the classrooms are on the upper floors. Any attempt to connect the two would result in a door leading to nowhere. And to drive home the point – the city had two separate grand openings in 1927. One for the segregated school and one for the gym.

And that’s how it was back then.

After 1948 when the state of New Jersey outlawed segregation, Franklin Street School was relegated to what Bacher refers to as a “precursor to the vo-tech schools.” Emily Dempsey was in the sixth grade and ended up graduating with an integrated class. Care of the school eventually came under the city government’s jurisdiction. It has been used as a municipal storage area and has fallen into a steady state of disrepair ever since.

And that brings us back to round tiles. Susan Ross found it difficult to convince people that the mosaic mural would be comprised of round tiles. “They couldn’t visualize a tile as being anything other than square,” said Susan laughing. As a former teacher, she immediately set about to solve the problem by creating a small graphic at the bottom of the donor page illustrating how all the tiles, big and small, round and not-so-round fit together in harmony. Individually none stand out, collectively they create a beautiful picture.

For information on how you can help CCA achieve its goal visit www.centerforcommunityarts.org