May 15, 2021
The South Austin Neighborhood Center (2508 Durwood, next to Gillis Park) wants to create an art installation at the front of the Center
The director of the South Austin Neighborhood Center reached out to artist Ryah Christensen to create a mosaic in front of the center that will be about 7 feet by 7 Feet. She in turn reached out to us for support, volunteers and ideas for appropriate subject matter.
For the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neightborhood Center, artist Ryah created a 7’x7′ tile mosaic mounted in a free-standing frame.
The tiles that make up the mosaic were created by community volunteers through workshops facilitated by Ryah (see gallery below).
The Dawson Neighborhood Association is working with Ryah to plan the project and pursue submitting a proposal to the City of Austin’s Neighborhood Partnering Program to fund the bulk of the project costs, with the remaining costs provided through a combination of volunteer labor from community members, in-kind donations of professional services or materials, and cash donations.
For the size of project we envision, about $15,000.00, the city would cover about 70% of the cost. Between participation in the title-making workshops and other community-directed volunteer work (including community-focused activities like park cleanup and It’s My Park Day) there should be no problem meeting the remaining 30% contribution.
Our plan is to submit a proposal to the Neighborhood Partnering Program in October (proposals can be submitted twice a year in June and October).
The proposal requires a reasonably complete design for the piece. This presents a challenge as the mosaic we envision will emerge dynamically from the contributions of community tile makers as guided by the artist.
To meet this challenge we are soliciting tile submissions now to start building up a body of potential tiles from which we can start developing a general design and theme for the mosaic to then guide the final design.
To submit a tile design, print out the tile template page here: 
(PDF file)
Draw your tile, scan it or take a picture with your phone, and email it to drmacro@gmail.com (Eliot Kimber) with the subject “Community Mosaic Project”. I will set up a gallery here on the Dawson Neighborhood Association web site with the submissions.
Ryah’s format for the mosaic uses three different tile sizes, reflected on the title blank page: A large octagon, a small square, and a small circle. Feel free to use any or all of those shapes in your tile designs. Feel free to combine as many tiles as you’d like to make your design.
Rosewood-Zaragosa Tile Making Workshop
This series of pictures are from one of the tile-making workshops Ryah facilitated for the Rosewood-Zaragosa project:
