About the North Van City Mosaic
What is The North Van City Mosaic?
North Van City Mosaic: Bringing our Community Together in Response to COVID-19 is a community public art project developed by leadership representatives from Family Services, North Shore Neighbourhood House, North Van Arts, North Vancouver School district and United Way, under the umbrella of the Mayor’s Healthiest Small City Social Resiliency Collective.
The project was one of five quick-starts to respond to gaps in the community’s social infrastructure that were illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The North Van City Mosaic illustrates our collective experience of the pandemic: we are all interconnected and intrinsically linked to our surrounding community, but we are also isolated, and each hold a unique perspective. Every tile of the mosaic helps build the whole picture, but they are also individual expressions and stories.
The North Van City Mosaic has creatively engaged our community to create an image of their COVID-19 story. Professional artists worked with the community’s images to create a digital mosaic website and physical artworks, programmed in two phases. The goals of the North Van City Mosaic are to create a legacy for the community to reflect, understand, inspire others, and articulate the impacts of the pandemic through artistic expression, while building resiliency, connection, and hope.
In Phase I, local visual artist Sandrine Pelissier and expressive art therapist Sophie Babeanu employed their original online mosaic concept, developed with the technical help of Relevant Software, to invite members of the public to collaborate in building an online digital mosaic. Anyone who either lives, works, or plays in the City of North Vancouver could contribute by submitting an image of a drawing, painting, or photograph, along with an optional description, that represented their experience living in the time of COVID-19. The online digital mosaic created a platform to share a ‘common’ thought, invite memory sharing, and experience multi-generational interactions; allowing for a wide audience to participate safely during social distancing.
In Phase II, the images collected through the online digital mosaic will be utilized to create other community public art pieces for people to gather and reflect on this extraordinary period for years to come. Participants of Phase I of the North Van City Mosaic will be notified via email of upcoming announcements for Phase II community public art projects. Stay in touch for updates!
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Contact Us
Want to know more or have any questions? Local visual artist Sandrine Pelissier and expressive art therapist Sophie Babeanu are available to help you with your submission! Please fill out the form below to contact us.
Media Contact:
Samantha Newton (she/her/hers)
Events and Community Development Manager,
North Van Arts
samantha@northvanarts.ca, 604-988-6844