A shiny steel sculpture, looking a bit like a cross between a flying saucer, a helpful robot, and a small, leaning Space Needle, is Vashon’s newest work of public art.

Unveiled in early September, the sculpture is now settling into its new home, amid the ever-changing greenery, colors and blooms of a small pocket garden located just south of the entrance to Vashon Pharmacy.

The whimsical work, with its fancy Latin name, “Fluctus Formarum,” is a monument to honor the 30th anniversary of an important island institution, the Vashon Artists in Schools (VAIS) program, administered by Vashon Center for the Arts with the support of the Vashon Island School District.

The long-running program pairs local artists with teachers in pre-K through 12th-grade classrooms to provide arts enrichment workshops and other experiences for students. In a typical year, VAIS coordinates 15 to 20 separate such experiences per year, with approximately 1,200 students participating in at least one residency every year. In the past year alone, the program has arranged for 21 artists to spend a total of 570 classroom hours in the schools, and 13 exhibitions around town have shown off the resulting artwork by students.

But in planning for the 30th year of VAIS on Vashon, program manager Kaycie Alanis decided it was high time for one of the collaborations to have a more lasting public presence on Vashon.

“Ultimately, this is a celebration of the relationship between artists, students, teachers and the community partnerships that support their work,” Alanis said. “We wanted something visible to the whole community.”

From the VAIS roster of artists, Ela Lamblin, who creates musical sculptures and other public works of art, was chosen to lead students through a design process that resulted in the creation of the sculpture.

The process began last spring, when Lamblin commenced a course of study with the students of Vashon High School art teacher Kristen Dallam and physics teacher Elizabeth Gleb. The first order of business, he said, was providing students with a framework for thinking about creating a work of public art.

“Ideas came from the group, and the group also filtered out the problems,” Lamblin said. “There’s a big demand for art in public places that is safe from vandalism and works with the natural area. It is like thinking about a building.”

Next came the process of creating sketches and models, using applied physics. But during the review process, one student remarked that some of the models “didn’t seem very Vashon.”

“We discussed what that meant,” Lamblin said. “We talked about our region, what makes something local — the weather, the water around us, cultural natives, animals, the mountain. We talked about regionalism and symbolism.”

Finally, the group wound up following Lambin’s lead to settle on a saucer shape, reminiscent of the cone at the Museum of Glass, or the Space Needle, or a lenticular cloud over Mount Rainier.

And when the current and former owners of Vashon Pharmacy saw sketches of what the final sculpture might look like, they enthusiastically signed on to host the finished piece.

“We were thrilled to participate in this, because we love the Artists in the Schools program,” said Tom Langland, one of the former owners of the business. The sculpture, he said, is a great addition to downtown, and he also noted, with a laugh, that he found the work to be “very Vashon.”

Kevin Hoffberg, VCA’s executive director, also gave credit to Clay Gleb and Norm Matthews, of Vashon Thriftway, who he said provided enthusiastic financial support for the project.

“They had a special interest in funding arts education, and they were all in,” Hoffberg said, adding that owners didn’t balk when the costs of the project overran. Another local business owner, Phil Middling, also agreed to provide pro bono landscaping services to make way for the sculpture.

Islander Bob Powell, of Meadow Creature, machined the steel to create the sculpture and gave the students a behind-the-scenes tour of his shop and the abrasive water-jet cutting machine used for the sculpture. Lamblin fabricated “Fluctus” over the summer, but he said all the cutouts around the piece came from the students.

“They had to work with design perimeters, and some of them did it perfectly, with design and a creative, cool aesthetic,” he said. “I was blown away.”

Vashon Artists in Schools has also received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; King County’s arts agency; Washington State’s agency, ArtsWA, as well as local support from the school district, Partners in Education, Vashon’s PTSA and other individual donors.