Mosaic Yard

This guide to Mosaic Yard in Saint Petersburg follows artist Vladimir Lubenko, who in 1984 opened a free children's art school and set his students loose covering an ordinary courtyard in lions, angels and glittering mosaic columns built from broken tile and glass. It traces the school's growing renown as one of the city's most delightful hidden corners, and a question that later hung over the beloved teacher who inspired it all. Look closely at the fountain and playground for the details the youngest students added themselves.