A winter bicyclist, sledders, a roofline, bare trees, and snowflakes all appear in the 150-plus-square-foot mosaic that was unveiled on Nov. 19 at Bryant Avenue Market in Southwest Minneapolis.
The nearby
Volunteers of America Southwest Senior Center, which does a lot of arts-related work, secured $11,900 earlier on from the city and the Calhoun Area Residents Action Group (
CARAG) to pursue the mosaic, according to Mary Ann Schoenberger, who heads the center.
Such projects are "a really great way to get people working inter-generationally," she says, adding that by making certain building improvements, "We're also giving back to the community."
The center worked closely with CARAG to pick out the site. Bryant Avenue Market is on a prominent corner, and it had been tagged numerous times, she says. "The neighborhood association was interested in doing building improvements [on the corner]," she says.
To come up with the design, the center held a couple of brainstorming sessions with community members while also getting feedback from an online survey.
"A lot of people wanted a winter scene," she says. "There are a lot of things that celebrate summer. People thought, 'wouldn't it be neat to celebrate winter?'"
Another theme was the city's bike-friendliness. It helped that "Bryant Avenue has a major bike path," she says.
With the guidance of artist
Sharra Frank, the center hosted numerous workshops with community members over six weeks to put together the mosaic.
The 185 all-ages volunteers came from the senior center,
Clara Barton Open School,
Walker Place,
Bryant Square Park,
Optum Health, and elsewhere.
Many of them worked on the 43 snowflakes that can be individually identified.
In a
piece about the mosaic she wrote for Southwest Patch, Schoenberger states that each snowflake "is a work of art in itself and we were amazed at how seven patterns could result in such diverse creations."
She has high praise for the artist, who"remained calm and the final result is amazingly professional considering how many hands were involved in the project."
Source: Mary Ann Schoenberger, executive director, Southwest Senior Center
Writer: Anna Pratt