By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

Students from Rowan County schools will be asked to provide artwork for a decorative wall planned at the corner of South Church and West Fisher streets.

Salisbury's Public Art Committee, Wachovia Bank and the Rowan-Salisbury School System will be partners in what will become a pocket park, featuring a historical marker for Salisbury Cotton Mills.

Barbara Perry, chairman of the Public Art Committee, said the project will try to involve all of the school system's art teachers and art students, who will be asked to reflect some of the history of cotton mills in clay tiles that will be part of the wall.

At least 80 decorated tiles will be randomly placed in the wall, Perry said. The corner also will include landscaping and paving and is expected to take one or two parking spaces of the bank parking lot.

A Salisbury Cotton Mills marker, ready for installation, will be set in the wall and is part of the History and Art Trail, which already has 12 markers in place, four waiting to be installed and four in the design phase.

Third-graders in the Rowan-Salisbury School System meet with city officials and take a walking tour of downtown Salisbury as part of their annual field trips. Mayor Susan Kluttz said it will be important for young people who live outside of Salisbury to see they are represented and important to Salisbury, which is the county seat.

The project also will give students another reason to be excited about art and history, she said, and she praised the History and Art Trail's contribution in that regard.

Salisbury City Council gave its OK Tuesday for the project to encroach into the city right of way.

Councilman Bill Burgin said he would like to see students in private schools included in the art project.

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Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com.