About this project
Hello, my name is Laurel True and I'm a mosaic artist and educator seeking funding to kick-start the development of a mosaic sculpture playground and Training Center in Ghana, West Africa
I have been creating site- specific public and community- based artworks for almost 20 years. I focus specifically in under-served areas of Oakland, CA and New Orleans, LA, where I divide my residency.
I have been traveling to Ghana for over 20 years and facilitating community mosaic mural projects specifically for the past 8 years. All of these projects have been over 90% self- funded and have involved Ghanaian youth, teachers, trades people, market women, mothers, fathers, families and the occasional passers-by. I have made lasting friendships and close associations with many people in Nungua.
I will be traveling to Nungua in March 2010 to develop designs through a collaborative process with Ghanaian sculptors and mosaic artists for a community playground that will include mosaic benches and sculptural mosaic forms inspired by local folklore.
The Woven Stories Sculpture Playground will be unique in Ghana and will serve as a gathering place for community in Nungua, a seaside town outside of the country’s capitol of Accra. The playground will be part of a larger project I have been working on since 2006 called the Woven Stories Project, which highlights collaboration between youth in Africa and the US.
I will also begin the on- site planning phase for a Mosaic Arts Training Center, which will be attached to the playground.
Over the years, many students and teachers and trades people have expressed an interest in learning mosaic skills and I have regularly offered specific technique workshops for these groups in addition to facilitating mosaic mural projects open to all.
In my teaching practice in the US, I offer business development classes through the Institute of Mosaic Art which I co- founded in 2005 and serves as a leader in mosaic education in North America. I see mosaic as an art form that is equally viable as an entrepreneurial skill towards economic development as well as arts education.
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’ economy.
The training academy will provide inspiration and resource materials in the mosaic arts and free or subsidized classes and workshops for Ghanaians and visitors to Ghana. Workshops will focus not only on technique, but also business and entrepreneurial development with workshops in portfolio and resume development, self-promotion and business contracts for artwork.
Thank you for your support for phase one of this project. Funds raised through Kickstarter will be used for travel expenses, design fees for Ghanaian design team, support and scouting, materials, project documentation and small stipends for core Ghanaian artists and trades people during Phase One.
I am excited about this and other projects.
Thank you for your support!
For more information, please visit my website:
www.Truemosaics.com
http://www.truemosaics.com/ghana.html
For information on other projects I am finding through Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/LaurelTrue/community-mosaic-mural-project-with-youth-in-narobi-0
FAQ
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5
Backers
$135
pledged of $4,800 goal
Funding Canceled
Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator on October 20, 2009.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
All of the above plus a string of recyced glass beads made in Ghana from glass bottles
Pledge $250 or more Pledge $250 or more
All of the above plus strip of kente cloth woven in Ghana
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
All of the above plus a personalized strip of kente cloth woven with your name in it by weavers in Ghana
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
