Progressive Playground
We Are All in this Together
WORKING TOWARDS UNITY IN 2020
I began the year 2020 intending to continue to work as a Teaching Artist with Lebanon Valley Council on the Arts and host our third summer Mosaic Camp. However, the coronavirus pandemic threatened any group of people who congregated together in public. By the summer, with COVID-19 cases at a decreased level, we developed a plan following the CDC guidelines for summer camps to continue with plans to install a mosaic at Progressive Playground. In previous years, a community member and business owner donated tile and supplies for other mosaic projects. When asked what she would like in return, she requested that we install a mosaic at her childhood playground: Progressive. After receiving permission from the city, funding from PA Council on the Arts through Millersville South Central PaARTners, and approval of our COVID-19 safety plan, we accepted 5 teens and 2 adult apprentices to begin the installation.
We began socially distanced in the studio during the first week learning the basics of mosaics and discussing the design for the wall. I challenged the teens to consider that the year 2020 has changed our world forever. If they could imagine returning to this wall in the future with the generation that follows after them, what would be a lasting message that they would like to see on the wall because of the events of 2020? Their responses are depicted in the design.
If ever one needs hope, we just need to look to our young people. They have the capacity to envision what seems impossible, the stamina to demand progress, the diligence to do the work, and the focus on what is important.
We installed the mosaic in the second week of camp with the help of 36 volunteers, one of them being the business owner who had requested this installation. Working together on the wall was something that satisfied what we had all been missing through the quarantined spring of 2020: being together. Though distanced and masked, we were using our hands to create together and found healing and peace in that camaraderie.
