About this project
Thank you for your support of this project!
I have almost met my goal, which is amazing. If my funding goal is exceeded then... yahoo!!!! I'll use the funds to expand the project. Or, If you see that my goal is met and you are interested in supporting another project, please follow this link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/LaurelTrue/design-for-mosaic-sculpture-playground-and-training
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My name is Laurel True. I am a mosaic artist and educator seeking funding to support a community mosaic mural project in Nairobi, Kenya as part of a youth project series called "Woven Stories".
I have been creating site-specific public and community based artworks for almost 20 years. Since 2006, I have been creating mosaic projects that highlight collaboration between youth in Africa and the US. I focus specifically in under-served areas of Oakland, CA and New Orleans, where I divide my residency. I have been facilitating community mosaic mural projects in Ghana, West Africa for the past 8 years.
This September, I have been invited to Nairobi, Kenya to do an artist's residency at a renowned glass studio called Kitengela Glass that also operates an alternative school primarily for Masai children. I will be working with the school children to design and create a large glass mosaic mural for the facade of the school.
The school where the mural with be sited serves as a model for similar schools across East Africa. The philosophy at Kitengela is "recycling everything, paying fair wages, protecting our environment." In this vein, we will be using all recycled glass materials from the studio for the mosaic mural project.
In the community projects I facilitate, I value fostering creative expression while including viable job training. I believe everyone has endless resources of "creative capital" — an enthusiasm to learn coupled with new skills can often transfer into economic opportunity. One example is a pair of my young students in Ghana, who have gone on to start their own small business as mosaic artists to help contribute to their own school fees and their families’ economies.
I will use your generous pledges towards this project for travel expenses, art materials and supplies for a mural both at the school in Nairobi and a partner project in the US. Your contributions will also assist with transportation, local support, a small stipend for myself and and local assistants, and project documentation.
As part of the Woven Stories Project, I will bring back design feedback from youth as well as glass elements from Kitengela Glass in Nairobi that will inspire and be used the creation of a future community mosaic mural with youth at a school in Oakland or New Orleans.
I am excited about this and other projects in Africa and in the US. Thank you for your support!
For more information, please visit my website: www.Truemosaics.com http://www.truemosaics.com/ghana.html
Kitengela Glass website: www.Kitengela-glass.com
For information on my next project in Ghana please visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/LaurelTrue/design-for-mosaic-sculpture-playground-and-training
FAQ
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$3,640
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 1, 2009.
Pledge $100 or more
Hand made fused recycled glass charm by Laurel True
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The above and 8 x 10 color print of completed mural
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The above and photo book including images of mural process and final images.
Project By
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_An adored teacher, True divides her time between private and public commissions by teaching in various parts of the world. Her energy is contagious, and her quest for experimentation and knowledge confirm her identity as a perpetual student.”___
— JoAnn Loctov, Author, Mosaic Art and Style: Designs for Living Environments
Laurel True is an artist and educator specializing in mixed media, mosaic and public art. She received her BA in African Art and Cultures and has studied at Studio Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, Universite Chiek Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, Parsons School of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago. True is the co- founder of the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, CA and has fostered education in the mosaic arts through teaching and lecturing around the world.
True has been facilitating public and community mosaic projects for almost 20 years and has helped to provide job training and arts education to under served communities in urban environments and developing areas. She has created hundreds of projects over the years, working with volunteers, assistants, students, trades people and artists of all ages on projects that reflect a sense of community pride and cultural significance in the locations where they are sited.
True’s public and commissioned work, created through True Mosaics Studio, can be found in private and civic collections as well as in hospitals, in parks, on commercial buildings and in schools across the United States.
She has also been known to create work that spontaneously emerges graffiti- like on concrete walls, in unexpected settings and with unexpected materials- many times through spontaneous community participation.
Her community projects have mainly been focused in West and East Africa, Oakland, CA, New Orleans and most recently, Haiti. She has been facilitating community mosaic mural projects in Ghana since 2001 where she not only works to encourage artistic expression through community mosaic making, but also helps to foster entrepreneurship, passing on skills that are economically viable.
Laurel has a particular investment in cross- cultural collaborative projects which involve feedback from participants from different parts of the world. In 2006 she began the Woven Stories Project, which focuses on creating permanent, site specific mosaic projects that highlight design collaboration between groups of youth in Africa and groups of youth in the US, specifically in under served areas of Oakland, CA and New Orleans, LA.
Projects are created using design feedback and/ or actual materials contributed from both groups, possibly having similar themes or visual content. Permanent artworks in the form of public art mosaics or community mosaic projects are created in both geographic locations - Africa and in the US. These partner projects highlight cross- cultural collaborations and foster a sense of community between youth of different cultures and from different continents.
Laurel's next project will be in Jacmel, Haiti.
www.TrueMosaics.com
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/True-Mosaics-Studio/276758323289
