St. Albert’s newest school is celebrating its namesake this month with a giant painting – one you can help create.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools is inviting the public to help paint a 600-tile mosaic mural next week for Sister Alphonse Academy.
The school, which opened last September, is named for Sister Marie Jacques-Alphonse of the Grey Nuns – St. Albert’s first permanent teacher.
The Catholic board is having teachers, Grey Nuns and members of the public paint a 600-tile mosaic for the school as part of Education Week, said superintendent David Keohane. Teachers painted their tiles last April 26, and the Grey Nuns and Youville home residents have their turn this May 1.
Jacques-Alphonse was both a teacher and an anchor to her community, teaching seven orphans and caring for a dying man (whom Black Robe’s Vision said was a Protestant), Keohane said. She was also a bit of a farmers' market pioneer, selling hats and clothes she knit to St. Albert settlers.
“She was not only a model of exemplary teaching, but she modeled how to give to her community,” Keohane said.
The board commissioned this piece from Sturgeon County mosaic mural master Lewis Lavoie to commemorate her legacy and that of the district, Keohane said.
“She educated seven kids. Now we’re educating 6,000.”
Lavoie, who along with his partners at Mural Mosaic has completed several hundred mosaic murals, said this piece would actually be a two-part installation.
The first part will consist of about 290 larger tiles and will be done by professional artists, he explained. This 8’x11’ work will depict the Tree of Life made up of different animals and symbols important to the Grey Nuns, and will go inside the school.
The second part will be a bigger 600-tile piece mounted outside the school. The plan is for it to show a rendition of Sister Jacques-Alphonse with two students next to a sewing machine, from which flows a tapestry. The tapestry transforms into a stream of books, letters, computers and butterflies as it flutters through the blue sky. Lavoie notes that the final mural could look much different from this initial sketch.
Jacques-Alphonse was originally from Quebec and would have been 28 when she arrived in St. Albert, say historians. She would have initially worked out of a small wooden cabin along with fellow Grey Nuns Zoé Leblanc-Emery and Adèle Lamy, and would have taught students French, English, history, math and religion, as well as practical skills such as farming, weaving and spinning.
A pious and dedicated woman with a lively temperament, Jacques-Alphonse was known to trek through the fields year-round to visit the poor, her official biography reads. She would regularly recite the rosary, and had a blind orphan do it for her when she was busy doing laundry.
Jacques-Alphonse died in St. Albert on Oct. 7, 1879.
Lavoie said the finished murals would be unveiled this September.
Anyone who wants to paint a tile for the mural should drop by Sister Alphonse Academy at 1 Joyal Way on May 8 or 9 between 6:30 and 8 p.m. for the public workshop. Visit bit.ly/2XLsyzu to register.
