Life in Tremont is surely enriched by the many professional artists of varying disciplines who live and work in the neighborhood.  Angelica Pozo is one of those artists.  Pozo, a Tremont resident since 1984, is a nationally renowned ceramist who specializes in tile, creating large public art works that often engages community in the process.  She has worked with all types of populations throughout Ohio and around the country and is excited to finally be working with members of her own community Winter/Spring 2016 to collaboratively create a ceramic tile mural for Lincoln Park.

The project grew from the initiative of a few neighbors, including Angelica, with big dreams of a mural for Lincoln Park.  Angelica felt that if we could engage community in hands on art making experiences, we could get funding for the project from the Ohio Arts Council, which stresses the need for life long arts making experiences for Ohioans of all ages. So under Angelica’s guidance, the group, Tremont Community AIR (Artist In Residence) Program was created in 2014 and started working towards that goal.

Angelica has been on the artists’ roster of Ohio Arts Council’s Arts Learning, Artist in Residence Program since 1987. Through OAC Angelica has completed dozens of residencies, many of which resulting in a collaborative tile mural. Her expertise were utilized in writing and securing our OAC Artist in Residence grant. A Neighborhood Connections grant helped with the match. The remaining funds continue to be raised through neighborhood fundraising efforts.

The mural will include tile panels of historic images painted onto the tile by a core group of artists from amateur to professional, including a class of Tremont Montessori advanced art students. Tremont History Project has been compiling the images that those artists will work from.

The mural also offers opportunities for those of lesser artistic skills. The b&w historic images will be surrounded by 750 colorfully decorated tile that the general Tremont community is invited to decorate at sessions set up through the block clubs as well as a few public sessions at neighborhood establishments. Angelica is also planning some outreach to engage some neighborhood congregations and youth and senior groups.

A goal of this project is to build bridges between these diverse groups and unite them behind one permanent expression of our neighborhood’s creativity. The process of engagement is just as important as the finished product. It will illustrate to all how working together we can achieve great things.  “Today’s Tremont grew from using arts as an economic engine, now we are using arts to build and enrich the community,” Angelica Pozo.

The final mural will create a colorful focal point within the Park and gives Tremont residents a sense of pride and ownership for a job well done together.

 

 

Tremont Artwalk: Second Fridays, every month