The individuals at The Arc of Opportunity have been busy working with art therapist Krista Bebezas to create a beautiful mosaic. After a brief display at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the mosaic will make its way to the Fitchburg Library and proudly be displayed outside the children's section entrance. Below is more information from an interview Krista took part in for the Sentinel and Enterprise newspaper article earlier this month.
1. What is this project; how did the mosaic come to mind?
One of the goals of The Arc of Opportunity is community inclusion. With this in mind, the idea was to create a group glass tile mosaic with all individuals attending art therapy groups as well as to collaborate with the community in some way to help create and display it. Choosing to create a mosaic as the group project to meet our goal seemed to be a perfect fit as many people could easily be involved placing tiles. Moreover, since the mosaic would be created on cement board, and not permanently affixed to its destination site, the mosaic could be worked on virtually anywhere and would be a modality able to accommodate anyone’s circumstance.
2. What efforts were needed to get this project going?
The idea for the mosaic began over a year ago. After researching and reaching out to multiple community members, it was suggested to contact the director of the Fitchburg Library, Sharon Bernard, to see if there was interest in beautifying an area of the library with a mosaic. Due to the fact that individuals from The Arc frequent the library, a mosaic in this location would offer individuals a sense of pride in seeing their work displayed in the community on a regular basis. Sharon was very supportive of the idea, agreed to meet, and suggested a location for the mosaic: the outside entrance to the children’s section. Once the location was nailed down, during the summer art therapy groups looked at mosaics for inspiration, discussed, and sketched out ideas for the mosaic design and size keeping the location in mind. The final design turned out to be a triptych cut from a 5ft x 3ft concrete backer board of an abstracted landscape with lots of hills, reminiscent of Fitchburg terrain. The landscape theme related to the idea that “reading can take you places” and since the mosaic is being hung outside the children’s section we wanted the mosaic to be bright, colorful, and have a whimsical feel. After the design received approval, individuals at The Arc started placing tiles on the mosaic during late October and are still working on the mosaic today!
3. Who is participating in this project?
All individuals attending art therapy groups at The Arc, in addition to those from the community who stopped by the library on January 24 to help finish placing tiles on the last panel.
4. What else do you want the community to know about this project?
In order to involve the community, a few individuals from The Arc went to the library on Wednesday, January 24, for a free casual drop-in event where people using the library stopped by and helped place a tile, or tiles, on the final panel of the mosaic. The completed mosaic will proudly make its debut at The Arc’s art exhibition, which will be held in the community gallery at the Fitchburg Art Museum during National Disability Awareness Month in March. The art exhibition will run from Thursday, 3/1 to Sunday, 4/1. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, 3/17 from 1-3 p.m. Later in April the mosaic will be hung and displayed at the entrance to the children’s section to the Fitchburg Library on a temporary basis until the Board of Trustees formally accept the mosaic as a gift if it is to hang there permanently.
5. What does this project mean to The Arc?
The mission of The Arc is to create and support lifetime opportunities in the community for individuals with disabilities and their families to reach their fullest potential by providing advocacy, education, employment, residential, and recreational services to enhance quality of life. This project means so much to The Arc as it not only invites the community to be a part of its mission but also to be involved in a beautiful piece of art that will be displayed for the entire community to enjoy.
