Students with autism create giant New Kids on the Block tribute
Boston’s iconic boy band is celebrating its 30th year.
What does it take to create a mosaic of Boston’s iconic boy band New Kids on the Block? Three months and 105,000 foam tiles.
That’s what students at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester discovered.
The students, ages three to 15, created the 22-foot long, 8-foot tall mosaic of the band in their Sensory Arts class, an adaptive art class at the school for students with autism.
This is not the first time the students have created a giant work of art. Their previous projects include portraits of President Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, Ellen Degeneres, David Ortiz, and former Mayor Thomas Menino.
“The real reason why we’ve been doing these big projects is we really want to showcase what students with autism are capable of accomplishing,’’ said Chris Hall, the class’s teacher.
Hall said the response by some people when they heard about the artwork created by his students was, “Oh, well they have autism, so it can’t really be that good.’’ He said he wants to prove those people wrong.
“We’re such a visual world now, I’m really trying to show people what the kids are capable of,’’ he said. “And each time we’ve created a work of art it’s gotten bigger and better.’’
The New Kids on the Block project evolved from an urban legend that the Joseph Lee School was the first place the band performed.
“I found they actually played their first show at our school, and it was coming up on 30 years,’’ he said. “So I thought this was a really good opportunity to really showcase our students’ talents and make something huge and commemorate their time entertaining boston. And all the support they give to local communities, all the outreach they do.’’
Story continues after gallery
New Kids on the Block through the years:
[bdc-gallery id=”318302″]
Hall said they played the group’s music for the class, but the main theme he and the teaching staff focused on with the students was the similarity between the members of the band and them.
“We kept repeating the story to them and saying, ‘They’re from Dorchester. Where are you from? Are you from Dorchester?’ ‘Yes, I’m from Dorchester,’’’ he said. “Just trying to get in the theme, to show them that these guys started off with small dreams and they made it really big, and now they’re representing our community all over the world, which is incredible. It’s a way to show that anything is possible, if they put their minds to it.’’
Since Hall posted pictures of the mosaic on the class’s Facebook and Twitter pages last week, the posts have gotten thousands of likes and shares, including a favorite from Donnie Wahlberg and a follow from Danny Wood on Twitter.
“We’d love for them to come to school,’’ he said.
The group is in Boston Wednesday and Thursday for concerts at the TD Garden.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com