As part of the Spring 2010 PARLab funding cycle, UArts Associate Professor DIANA PEPE is exploring a collaborative project with faculty and students at The University of the Arts and The Philadelphia School (TPS), a preschool through 8th grade independent school in Center City, Philadelphia. TPS faculty Neesa Becker Procaccino and Rick Jacobsen are collaborating with Diane.
The project goal is to create a ceramic mosaic mural based on research developed through this collaboration. The colorfully glazed mosaic units will express, in graphic images, three significant aspects of education at The Philadelphia School: The City, The Country and The Classroom. The mural will be installed on a wall at The Philadelphia School, either at the main building on 25th and Lombard, or at the new building, to be developed on 25th and South Streets. In addition, two publications will be designed and created, in collaboration with photo students from UA, the project director and TPS faculty. One will contain photos of TPS students engaged in activities that will be used as source images for the mosaic design. Another will document the entire process of the TPS student’s creating the individual mosaics.
Students from the UA Crafts Department as well as Photo and Film have engaged and are committed to work with this project. It is an exciting opportunity to express significant educational principles, in a rich visual format to be displayed in a public venue.