The new Bartillion Men’s Shelter in Madison will include an art installation created by mosaic artist, Laurel True. She joins host Dana Pellebon to discuss the process of designing this installation and her career of community-based projects and creative placemaking.

True says that she enjoys working on projects that bring art to populations that don’t typically have access to public art, like in shelters. She took feedback from community members, staff, and over 40 men’s shelter clients to make sure the installation would reflect the feelings they want the artwork to evoke and what messages they want it to send. They expressed a desire for art that reflects nature, hope, care, and possibility. One man asked for the installation to “make me fell like I can make it.”

True tells Pellebon about her work as an educator through the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, California and the Global Mosaic Project. True taught her first mosaic class at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center in Madison and installed some of her earliest pieces at cafes along Willy Street.

True also describes how art fits into difficult spaces, drawing on her community work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. There, she and her students transformed Jacmel into a city of mosaics. Across her projects, True explores creative expression and wellbeing, finding that mosaics can have soothing and therapeutic effects. 

Laurel True is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and arts advocate. She has been exploring the intersection of creative expression and well-being for over thirty years. Her company, True Mosaics Studio, specializes in creative placemaking, public art and architectural mosaics. Through her professional studio and teaching practice, True has created hundreds of murals and sculptural forms in public spaces. Her work can be found in parks, hospitals, social centers, transit systems, and in commercial and residential spaces the US, Haiti, Latin America, Africa, and Europe

Featured image of one of Laurel True’s mosaics, courtesy of the artist.

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