Two-Way Community Building: MOREart!
It all started in Philadelphia. That's where Suzanne Moe, SAMA member and co-director of the MOREart! Downtown Community Mosaic Mural Project, was first inspired to attempt a communty-built public art project in her town: Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Moe visited the the Village of Arts and Humanitites, a community-built park filled with mosaics. The community spirit of the place impacted her just as strongly as her beauty. She returned home with the desire to create a mosaic that would be a catalyst for community involvement. To add to her knowledge of mosaic techniques, she returned to Philadelphia in 2002 to attend a workshop by Isaiah Zagar.
That's the same year I met Suzanne Moe. she shared her vision, and the seeds of collaboration began germinating. By 2005, those seeds had taken root, and we busied ourselves with creating a mission statement, knocking around design ideas and looking for possible installation sites.
We had no funding, no city approval – just the drive to make a mosaic artwork. We wanted to involve the community and convey a message of unity in a city which, although multiculturally diverse, often seemed segregated and disconnected.
We approached a local organization, Multicultural OutReach Effort (MORE), which serendipitiously was looking for a community project to sponsor. We developed a project proposal and detailed budget, with Suzanne and me serving as co-directors of the project. In July 2006 we presented it to MORE, and they accepted it.
To bypass any government red tape, we narrowed our site search to privately owned property. A local business donated a prominently located exterior wall for our cause, large enough to accommodate the 32 x 8-foot main mosaic and two 4-foot square mosaics of the MORE logo.
We developed our project with community youth involvement in mind, finally selecting nine youth team members who applied and competed for the positions. In February 2007, we started meeting weekly with the youth, assembling parts of the mosaic on mesh. We used high-fired, frost-resistant ceramic tile, glass gems and mirror as our tessarae for the main mural and vitreous glass for the logo mosaics.
Our main install week was June 18-22. During that time, with the youth team serving as leaders and instructors, over 300 community volunteers–ranging in age from infants to 94, of all colors, creeds and walks of life – participated in completing the mural. We also had considerable help from SAMA members, including JeanAnn Dabb, Bonnie Fitzgerald, Barbara Smith and Cathy Smith. The group installed the pieces we had spent the past months assembling on mesh and adhered the backgrounds and more free-form elements directly with thinset mortar.
We invited certain individuals to donate items of personal or cultural significance to be installed in the margins of the main mural, requiring that the items be weather resistant. We embedded the items in thinset along the sides of the wall.
After the main installation week–in preparation for our July 6th unveiling ceremony – Suzanne and I returned over the next two weeks. Aided by a small band of die-hard volunteers, we tweaked, grouted and cleaned the mural. The unveiling ceremony was a huge success, with speakers, free live music and food – all donated. It was a party to remember, with more than 500 community members of all types celebrating side by side!
The Free Lance-Star newspaper followed our progress, writing several articles adn creating a nultimedia presentation about the project. To read the articles, see the presentation and learn the engaging stories behind each donated item, go to http://www.fredericksburg.com/video/flash/2007/0625moreart/index.html.
Andrea Shreve Taylor serves on the Society of American Mosaic Artists' Board of Trustees. She lives outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia, with two horses, one dog, one cat and one husband.
