Finished Product

The Hope Galleryโ€™s mosaic celebrates SWIRCA & Moreโ€™s 50th year.

Jennifer Parkerโ€™s ceramic plates and bathroom tile were the perfect colors to include in a ceramic mosaic for SWIRCA & Moreโ€™s 50th anniversary. It was made by team members at The Hope Gallery in Newburgh, Indiana, and recently unveiled at SWIRCAโ€™s headquarters.

โ€œThese people are so special. Everything they do is so earnest,โ€ says David Brown, Healthy Aging Coordinator for SWIRCA.

Photo of team members at The Hope Gallery making a ceramic mosaic for SWIRCA & More’s 50th Anniversary by Adin Parks

The September/October issue of Evansville Living featured The Hope Gallery team members working on the piece, but its creation took months of preparation and the desire of many to see team membersโ€™ talents on display.

When Brown started working at SWIRCA in March 2023, he wanted more artwork displayed around SWIRCAโ€™s headquarters at 16 W. Virginia St. and initially envisioned a pop-up gallery space in the activity center. One of the places he reached out to for art to include in the pop-up gallery was The Hope Gallery. When the pop-up gallery idea did not pan out due to renovations at SWIRCA, the vision changed to a mosaic artwork. Brown wrote a grant request for the Indiana Arts Commission for The Hope Gallery to create an artwork of SWIRCAโ€™s logo to be framed by Bippus Frame Shop and hung in the seniors center.

The grant also would cover an art workshop planned for 15 of SWIRCAโ€™s 650 members in January 2025 and instructed by The Hope Galleryโ€™s team members. The gallery would receive a $2,000 commission to cover expenses for the workshop, including supplies.ย The Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana served as the regional partner for the grant and reviewed and offered insight into the project.

A $4,000 grant was approved in June, fully funding The Hope Gallery’s work on the ceramic mosaic, which began in July. The gallery collects ceramics from many sources, and pieces often are donated โ€” Parker herself contributed materials from her own home that fit SWIRCAโ€™s light-and-dark-blue color scheme.

Photo of the 4 by 4 ceramic mosaic made by team members at The Hope Gallery or SWIRCA & More’s 50th Anniversary by Jodi Keen

โ€œItโ€™s the biggest masterpiece weโ€™ve done,โ€ says Kiefer Wille, a team member with The Hope Gallery for the past three years. โ€œI love to do it.โ€

The mosaic was finished in mid-August and installed in late September. SWIRCA visitors are thrilled by the four-foot-by-four-foot new artwork, which doubles as a source of pride for The Hope Galleryโ€™s team members.

โ€œLook what we can do if you give us a chance,โ€ Parker says. โ€œItโ€™s really important to us because the community believes in us. We want people to see our ability over our disability.โ€

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Maggie Valenti
Maggie Valenti
Maggie Valenti joined Tucker Publishing Group in September 2022 as a staff writer. She graduated from Gettysburg College in 2020 with a bachelors degree in English. A Connecticut native, Maggie has ridden horses for 15 years and has hunt seat competition experience on the East Coast.

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