MSoP is deep in the planning stages, getting ready to host the SAMA Conference, March 11-15, 2015! Volunteers are needed in many areas, from Registration Desk duties, to Salon helpers, and everything in between! If you can spare an hour or two, or ten or twenty, and want to help, please send a message to msop@mosaicsocietyofphiladelphia.org and help us make the next SAMA Conference one to remember!
Start planning for the 2015 SAMA conference now!
Details are starting to emerge for the 2015 Society of American Mosaic Artists Annual Conference. Visit the SAMA website for updated information!! At this time, a call for presenters and vendor reservations has been made, and the host hotel, the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is already taking reservations at the conference preferred rate. Make your reservations soon! The rooms are going fast!
Registration for the conference opens December 1st. We can't wait to welcome the mosaic world to Philadelphia!
Save the date! March 11-14, 2015… SAMA is coming to Philly!
It's official! Just minutes ago the announcement was made at the annual SAMA Conference in Houston, TX -- SAMA is coming to Philadelphia next year! Details to come…
It's official! The saved mosaic is now the CAPA Mosaic!
With a crowd of about 60, enthusiastic performances by CAPA students, and words by a few of the folks instrumental in saving the former Loews Philadelphia Mosaic and orchestrating and executing it's move and installation at its new home at the Philadelphia High School of Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), the mosaic was unveiled at a gathering on March 21, 2014. Please enjoy a few photos of the event!
Photos © 2014 Anabella Wewer
CAPA students and guests listening to opening remarks, with the saved mosaic above.
A plaque acknowledging the work of those who led the effort to save the mosaic now graces the column to the left of the work.
The team that lead the efforts of many volunteers and donors to preserve this great mosaic! From left: Nancy Frank, MSoP; Stephen Miotto, fabricator; Wendy Shapiro, Interim Principal, CAPA; Richard Watson, Artist; Daniel O'Brien, The City of Philadelphia; Jason Zahaczewski, Humphrey Construction Group; Carol Shelkin, President, MSoP
Admiring the mosaic! (Carol Shelkin, President, MSoP; Stephen Miotto, fabricator)
The mosaic can now be admired at eye level! It will be viewable during CAPA's public events.
Stephen Miotto, fabricator, signing the extra pieces cut from the edges of the mosaic, which were auctioned to raise funds for MSoP's Scholarship Fund.
Save the Mosaic! update and unveiling
We did it! The Mosaic Society of Philadelphia, under the leadership of Nancy Frank, and with the support of Loews Hotel Philadelphia and a lot of other people and organizations, has saved the mosaic formerly at the Loews' SoleFood Restaurant. The mosaic was installed by its fabricator, Stephen Miotto, at its new home at CAPA, the Philadelphia High School of Creative and Performing Arts, last week. The official unveiling will be March 21, 2014. Visit the Events page for details!
Photo © 2014 Anabella Wewer
Just go see it!
Shattering Expectations: Mosaic 2014, opened last night (March 7, 2014) at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens to a resounding success! All of the featured artists and the Juror, Nancie Mills Pipgras (Editor of Mosaic Art Now) were in the house for the Opening Reception, attended by over 300 people. The exhibit runs through April 20, 2014. Don't miss it!
For a review of the show, please visit Architects + Artisans! Thank you, J. Michael Welton for such a lovely review!
Photos © 2014 Anabella Wewer
Brooks Tower and Nancie Mills Pipgrass
MSoP's own Carol Stirton Broad, one of the featured artists.
Isaiah Zagar and Richard J. Watson.
Karen Kettering Dimit, chatting with Magic Garden's Ellen Owens and Samantha Holmes.
Yulia Hanansen
Nancie Mills Pipgras, Karen Kettering Dimit and Samantha Holmes.
Isaiah Zagar, Yakov Hanansen, Nancy Mills Pipgrass, Mrs. Hanansen.
Rachel Sager, Isaiah Zagar
The (former) Lowes mosaic is at its new home!
Taking advantage of an unexpected opening in the fabricator's schedule, the mosaic MSoP saved from the Lowes Hotel Philadelphia is now at its new home at CAPA! Stephen Miotto and his assistant, Miro, installed the mosaic on February 24-26. The mosaic had been cut into a few pieces, when it was removed from the hotel, and was expertly reassembled by Mr. Miotto, who is the original fabricator of the mosaic. On hand were just a couple of the MSoP members who helped orchestrate the last minute installation. They helped patch the portions of the mosaic where the smalti had to be removed to screw the panels onto the wall.
A grand unveiling will take place March 21, 2014, at 6 p.m. Stay tuned to this space for updated details and information! A lot of folks helped Save the Mosaic -- we hope you will all help us celebrate its installation!
Penn State Great Valley Conference Center Community Mosaic (40" x 33", china, glass, ceramic, 2013)
Penn State Community Mosaic
The Penn State Great Valley Community Mosaic has been installed! The mosaic was designed by MSOP's own Claire Brill as an interpretation of the Penn State logo, and made during the opening reception of MSOP's Parts of a Whole exhibit at the Conference Center at Penn State Great Valley. An animated group of about 30 volunteers lent their hand to the making of the mosaic, lead by committee members Claire Brill, Carol Hemsley, Barbara Bix, Barbie Henig and Susan Kelly, who had previous painted the design onto the substrate and pre-cut all of the tesserae from material donated by volunteers during a drive at a previous general meeting of the Society. A combination of blue and white china, dishes, glass tile, and ceramic tile were used.
It was a great opening event for what was a very successful exhibit, and the making of the mosaic allowed visitors and guests to observe first-hand the making of a large scale mosaic (40" x 33"). The project inspired Penn State to do their own community mosaic, a large Nittany Lion, that they plan to accomplish with the help of volunteer graduate students at the campus later this year. The mosaic was later grouted by MSOP members and installed at the Conference Center in time for Penn State Great Valley's 50th anniversary celebration. It can be viewed when the Conference Center is open to the public.