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Nearly eight months after the project officially began, the Takoma Park mosaic was finally unveiled to the hundreds of volunteers that helped create the massive public art display adorning the city library.

Up to 200 students, residents and public officials crowded the Takoma Park Community Center on Friday to kick off the official unveiling of the 560-square-foot mosaic depicting a fantasy landscape of flowers and vines intertwined around a giant setting sun. While plenty of photographs and a video documenting the project were on display, a steady stream of admirers ventured out into the light rain to admire the mosaic throughout the event.

A group of English for Speakers of Other Languages students from nearby Piney Branch Elementary School put on dance performances and read poetry at the event. The ESOL class worked with mosaic organizers to craft additional glass and clay mosaic plaques that will decorate the community center.

"It was a really great project because it helped to showcase some of the talents of the immigrant families in Takoma Park," said Rachna Rikhye, an ESOL teacher at Piney Branch Elementary.

The 12 students in Rikhye's fourth- and fifth-grade classes brought in artifacts from their home countries and decorated them with colorful glass squares and clay designs. The plaques will be hung over the community center doorways this fall, Rikhye said.

"The coolest thing that me and my friends did was work with artists and work together," said ESOL student Salimatu Mankajang, who also performed a traditional Gambian dance at the event.

Local nonprofit arts group Art for the People organized the event, relying on a $40,000 grant from the Takoma Foundation and the city of Takoma Park to hire lead artist Arturo Ho. The project quickly generated massive amounts of volunteer support in workshops beginning in late November, according to Laurie Stepp, a project co-director.

"It got bigger than we realized [as the workshops progressed]," Stepp said, adding that sessions filled quickly and weekend work sessions to fix the mosaic to the wall were constantly booked. "We had so many people who would just stop as they were walking by and say, ‘Hey, that looks fun, can I try that?'"

For Ho, who worked closely with volunteers, the unveiling was just the first step in what he hopes will be a series of large-scale public arts projects in the city.

"I'm sensing a lot of good thoughts and attitudes now, and that's what art should really be about," he said. "Based on this experience, to me it seems like the community is willing to get behind public art. … This was a really good barometer to see how we can move forward from here."

The mosaic generated a variety of responses from the residents who came out to the unveiling, from awe and admiration to more contemplative analysis of the role of public art in a community.

"I walked by it almost every day and I looked at it and I could see its progress, it was just great," said Takoma Park resident Elaine Feister. "To me it signifies community effort."

Nat Dickinson, whose wife volunteered extensively on the mosaic, said he was not as carried away by the project, but still recognized the positive image such projects gave to communities.

"Is this revolutionary? No," he said. "But it certainly attracts the interest of [residents] and it ends up being one of the many surprises in the community that you end up seeing as you drive down the streets of Takoma Park."