Later this week, workers will destroy an installation of public art, the Idlewild Tiles. And when they are gone, Easton will have lost a treasure that most of us on the Eastern Shore did not know existed.
Easton is removing the tiles because weather and time are slowly but surely destroying them. They are flaking away, with bits of the tiles falling to the ground every day. Easton is right to remove the tiles, which are installed at the entrance to a large playground.
The tiles were never a permanent installation of public art. But we didn’t appreciate that when the tiles were installed in 2007.
The history of the installation is not particularly important, but it is admirable nonetheless. The town decided to install tiles painted by Easton’s schoolchildren and place them outside the playground in Idlewild Park. This was a brilliant decision. The installation of the tiles, each hand-painted by a child, must have exceeded the wildest expectations of the people who conceived the idea.
The artists who created the tiles are now more than twice their age when they made them. How many of them ever created a second work of art that went on public display?
When the town first announced the removal of the tiles, a public protest ensued. The decision was delayed, and alternatives were explored. There was no economically feasible alternative that would have allowed the tiles to be repaired or relocated. Many of them were already missing large pieces, and some were missing.
Easton has created a digital gallery where the artists and others can visit to see what the tiles looked like before their removal. It is worth a visit.
But when I saw news coverage that the tiles were on their last days, I decided to view them in person. I’m glad I did, but I did not go alone. I took along a camera. I wanted pictures of the tiles that capture, I hope, some of the essence of how I experienced them. I wasn’t interested in a catalog of the tiles but in a short series of photos that will enable me to revisit the tiles for many years into the future.
Here are a few of my pictures:
The Idlewild Tiles will be missed, but not forgotten, especially by the talented artists who created them.
Martha Witte Suss says
Unfortunately, those tiles were vandalized. That’s why they’re all chipped away … vandals. I if I remember correctly —almost immediately vandals attacked those tiles within the first year that they were installed…
John Dean says
I did not know that. Why would someone do that? Very sad. It makes the loss of the tiles all the sadder.
Thank you.