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WOODS CROSS — A Woods Cross ceramics class decided to create something that the entire school could enjoy. The result? A giant chess set.
Melanie Swann, the Woods Cross High School ceramics teacher, said the idea came during a class when she was explaining the difference between an installation piece of art and a performance piece.
"I said, 'You know we could do one here,' " Swann said. "I said, 'A large chess set that you put in front of the school and invite the students to play would be both an installation and a performance piece.' And they said 'Oh, well we could make one of those.' "
Swann said each student in the class created a ceramic pawn that stood 9 inches tall, then more advanced students helped build the bigger pieces of the chess set. A beginning ceramics student offered to make the four 17-inch rooks. Swann said the king was the largest piece at 32 inches.
"At that time it was probably a little beyond their abilities," Swann said. "But, they were challenged and it was exciting. And when it got rolling, it just got bigger and bigger (with) more energy and excitement."
The project took the students the entire four months to finish, and Swann said they completed the last piece the week before the semester ended.
"It was really fun," she said. "It was fun to watch the kids get excited about it and to watch how it challenged their skill level and helped them develop faster than I've ever seen. It was like they were part of something bigger than they were by themselves."
The chess board had to be removable without damaging the floor in the school, so a parent of one of the students sewed a cloth board that could stick to the carpet with Velcro.
The chess set was displayed in a hallway of the high school, and students were constantly playing with the set after it was finished, Swann said.
"It created quite a bit of energy," she said. "We just had one piece (broken), and the kid didn't have a firm grip on it and it slipped out of his hand, so it just shattered. But we didn't have any theft. We didn't have any vandalism. The kids were way respectful, and the student body was way excited."
