---
title: "Mosaic"
description: "An artwork assembled from small pieces of tile, glass, or stone set into mortar: one of public art’s most durable media, with examples surviving from antiquity."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mosaic"
---

# Mosaic

> An artwork assembled from small pieces of tile, glass, or stone set into mortar: one of public art’s most durable media, with examples surviving from antiquity.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mosaic

Durability is why mosaics get specified where paint can't survive: floors,
pool surrounds, transit stations, splash pads. When a mosaic does fail, it's
almost never the tesserae. It's the substrate and mortar behind them, which
is why condition checks should look for hollow sounds and hairline cracking
long before any tiles go missing.

Related terms: [Mural](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mural), [Relief](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/relief)

## Mentioned in

- [How to Document Public Art When You Don't Know the Artist](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/how-to-document-public-art-when-you-don-t-know-the-artist)
- [Introducing Civic Collection](https://www.civiccollection.com/blog/introducing-civic-collection)
- [Public art inventory field checklist](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/public-art-inventory-field-checklist)