DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Wednesday, the Mosaic of Hope was revealed at the Omega CDC Harvard Campus on Harvard Blvd.
The public art project was started in March at the Learn to Earn Dayton Readiness Summit. More than 600 virtual participants collaborated on the idea and made their marks on thousands of tiny tiles used to create the mosaic.
Learn to Earn Dayton and Preschool Promise joined the Montgomery County Play on Purpose Collaborative for the project. They chose the Omega Community Development Coalition’s (CDC) ‘Hope Center’ as the location and were helped by the Mosaic Institute of Greater Dayton.
“[The mosaic] celebrates bringing small pieces of life together and making something beautiful and wonderful,” explained Vanessa Ward, President of the Omega CDC. “It invites children and their families to be engaged in interactive play.”
The mosaic, designed with Boog the Illustrator, features games, letters and more to help children between the ages of 0 and 3 learn and develop. Although this is the target age, Jes McMillan, executive director of the Mosaic Institute of Greater Dayton, says it’s for all families and ages to enjoy.
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“My favorite part is that we started this during a pandemic, when division and separation from each other was at an all time high and we still found a way to be unified,” she explained.
Ward says she wants to Mosaic and other development in the area to welcome families to come together and connect. She is hoping that they can create safe, green spaces for Dayton’s families. The playground where the mosaic is located will soon be renovated thanks to an anonymous donor according to Ward. So there are a lot of new opportunities and projects planned for the development.
The mosaic was designed with the theme “Together We Rise” and was a collaboration of many people across the community.
“We had volunteers coming from South Dayton, and East Dayton to come here every Thursday and every Saturday for months to glue those pieces of porcelain,” said Ward.
“That is really what it’s about and the mosaic is a physical representation of that [collaboration],” said McMillan.
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