Slate Floor Mosaic Celebrates the Slate Valley Museum’s Recovery after Hurricane Irene

The new design welcomes visitors into the museum and celebrates the impressive amount of work contributed by many volunteers

Flooding from Hurricane Irene heavily damaged the museum.

The new entryway at the Slate Valley Museum, damaged by Hurricane Irene, features a restored slate floor.

GRANVILLE, NY -- Adorned with a new stunning slate floormosaicin its entry way, the Slate Valley Museum can now mark the completion of over a year of

renovationsafter flooding, from Hurricane Irene damaged the museum and destroyed the Cultural Campus surrounding the museum. Within hours after flood waters receded from the Slate Valley Museum, Granville stone artist Jim Morris began work painstakingly cleaning layers of mud, silt, and flood debris from the Slate Valley Museum’s tile and mosaic slate floors.

Thick silt required each tile to be hand cleaned with a conservator’s approach that Morris mastered, making sure that silt was not re-deposited on newly cleaned floors. Once the cleaning process was complete, Morris began conservation work on the iconic mosaic slate floor he created for the Slate Valley Museum almost a decade ago. Although remarkably well preserved, Morris replaced damaged tiles and damaged or stained grout to reflect the original beauty of the floor. After several weeks of delicate craftsmanship and a gift for designing in stone, Morris completed a new intricate slate floor mosaic. Morris donated his time, carefully selecting from colored slate contributed by slate companies, Evergreen Slate Co. and Mohawk Red Slate Co.

The new design welcomes visitors into the museum and celebrates the impressive amount of work contributed by the many volunteers who helped the museum recover after Hurricane Irene. Slate Valley Museum Executive Director Kathryn Weller commented, “Jim Morris combines an artistic eye tuned to intricate detail with a love and knowledge of stone that is unparalleled in the art community.

He creates designs that both compliment the natural qualities of stone and challenge our concepts of what is possible when working with a material that many in our community have known their whole lives. We knew when we contacted Mr. Morris that he would be able to not only clean our amazing slate floors, but also return them to their original appearance. The gift he gave in this entryway was an unexpected but wonderful surprise and something that symbolizes the success our museum has achieved despite this natural disaster and the ability to not only recover but thrive after Hurricane Irene.”

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Sara Garafalo joined the editorial team at TILE, Contemporary Stone & Tile Design and Stone World in May 2013. Prior to that she spent four years at the New York Post. In her role as Editorial Associate, she focuses on writing features as well as product round-ups and news announcements.