The Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston (MOCAH) is no stranger to producing public art having developed over 70 public art projects in the past five years. This summer 13 teens from the WorkSource Youth Opportunity program will take part in a 300 hour mural training program to create the largest mosaic mural in Houston. The project lead by MOCAH artists, Reginald & Rhonda Adams and Prince Maduekwe began in May 2005 and is planned for completion in September 2005. The outcome of the intensive mural course is a 20’H x 63’L handmade ceramic tile mosaic mural. The YO Northside mosaic mural will be installed on the east wall of the Northside WorkSource YO Center, located at 1960 Cochran @ Hogan. The YO Northside mosaic mural project is one of eight public art projects that MOCAH has incorporated into this year’s series of Public Art Campaign projects. This mural project began May 2005 and is planned for completion on September 2005.

The mural course is a vocational training component of MOCAH’s newly launched Public Art Campaign (PAC). PAC was developed to compliment the urban revitalization efforts that are taking place in inner-city communities around the city. The primary purpose of the PAC is to engage youth and community residents in the development of public art projects that reflect the culture and heritage of these communities.

In November 2004, Russel Tomlin, Executive Director of the WorkSource, approached MOCAH about creating a mosaic mural that would reflect the values and mission of the YO program. After a series of meetings and discussions about the scope and scale of the work, MOCAH proposed to create a 1,200 square foot mosaic mural that would cover the east wall of the newly built Northside Center. Mr. Tomlin’s primary interest was that all four YO sites and their participants play an active role in the design and development of the massive mural project.
The four YO sites include:

Northside Center - 1906 Cochran
Ripley House Center - 4410 Navigation
Third Ward Center - 3005 McGowen
Fifth Ward Center - 3404 Lyons Avenue

In order to meet the request of Mr. Tomlin MOCAH released a call for artists to participants involved in the WorkSource YO program. Over 20 young artists responded to the call. They were then screened and interviewed for the short list of 13 positions available for the mural project. The selected participants were then guided through a 27 hour design and composition workshops. In this phase of the project the participants developed the theme for the mural, “Preparation + Opportunity Equals Success”. The design workshops occurred four days per week, Monday-Thursday, for 1.5 hours per session. Once the theme was identified the participants brainstormed for words that reflect the various elements of the mural’s theme. Next, the participants used the internet to research and collect reference images for the mural. The collected images where then composed into the preliminary design for the mural. The preliminary design was submitted to the WorkSource for final approval and once the design was approved the participants proceeded to add color the preliminary design.

Beginning June 1, 2005, the participants began working full day work shifts, 9am-5pm, to produce and construct the mural. The next step in the process was to gather each of the colored designs and critique each design for the best elements of color that would finally be compiled into the final color rendering. This color rendering will be the color guide for the glazes used to create the handmade ceramic tiles.

The participants then transferred the preliminary design to the panels that make up the 1,200 s.f. mural. The participants will then begin to make handmade ceramic tiles that will be glazed to reflect the vibrant and rich colors reflected in the finished colored design. Updates to this webpage will follow.

click here to view eflyer

click here to view artists

more photos

click here for a map to the mural