Diplomacy and art at MFTA

As readers of this blog know, Materials for the Arts was busy in April! In addition to events celebrating Earth Day around the city, we welcomed the staff of the UK Mission to the United Nations for a volunteer day and art-making workshop. The staff was greeted with a spread of bagels, coffee, and tea (however, I was surprised by the amount of tea left over) and then learned about MFTA during a tour of the warehouse. After their tour the staff was eager to get started with their volunteer project, check out their hard work and a mosaic they created after the jump.

At over 70 members strong, the staff really helped us finish up our spring cleaning! They worked in teams to sort through bins in the hardware and the craft sections, and helped set out fabrics. While three teams worked in the warehouse, two teams worked in the classroom, contributing their creativity to a mosaic which will grace the mission’s offices. By the end of the day, everyone had created part of the mosaic!

MFTA Teaching Artist Chase Carlisle made a montage of iconic British images and divided the montage into squares for each volunteer. Everyone picked a square and then selected a variety of materials to create their individual mosaic. After they finished, Chase combined all the squares to create the mosaic project. We will post a picture of the project once it is installed at the mission. Meanwhile,  see if you can recognize any UK icons in the individual squares below.

Follow the links for information on volunteering at MFTA or having a creative team-building project at the warehouse or your site.