Los Alamos County unveils community-made mosaic at Justice Center

A new glass-tile mosaic now brightens the south-facing wall of the Los Alamos Justice Center, turning a courthouse-facing corner at Trinity Drive and Oppenheimer Drive into a permanent piece of community art shaped by public input. The installation also marks a visible change in how Los Alamos County is using civic space, placing artwork where residents come for government and court business instead of tucking it away in a gallery or park.

County leaders planned a ribbon-cutting ceremony for 11 a.m. Saturday, with short remarks from county representatives and artist J Muzacz before the formal cut. The Art in Public Places Board commissioned the work, and county documents show the project moved from a proposed budget of $55,000 to council approval of up to $70,000, including contingency and gross receipts tax, to complete the mosaic.

The county said the piece was built through a three-day community workshop from June 5 through June 7 at Mesa Public Library, where people of all ages and abilities helped place tiles using Muzacz’s guided template system. No prior experience was needed, and the county described the sessions as free. Los Alamos Arts Council summer campers also joined the project, with 28 campers and eight staff members taking part, adding another layer of local involvement to what could have been a purely administrative commission.

What hangs on the Justice Center wall reflects more than a single artist’s vision. County materials said the design grew from public input collected over the past two years and was meant to showcase the natural environment of Los Alamos through native flora and fauna chosen by residents. County planning documents show the board reviewed two final design options, including Birds and Big Skies of Los Alamos, before settling on the finished work.

The location gives the project its larger meaning. Set on a highly visible exterior wall at one of the county’s busiest intersections, the mosaic meets residents in a place associated with county operations, legal proceedings and daily errands. The result is part decoration and part civic identity-building, a public investment funded through the Art in Public Places program, which draws from 1% of capital improvement project budgets and 0.5% of road project budgets for county-owned art. In a town where the Justice Center is already a landmark, the new mosaic makes the building itself part of the public canvas.