Over a couple weeks in June and July, Arte Libre VA (ALVA) hosted workshops with the amazing Justin Fowler (a builder of community built parks around the world!) to build our LOVE/AMOR sign! The finished sign will say “LOVE” on one side, and “AMOR” on another, will be painted and decorated by local youth, and is being installed on the grounds of a local middle school!
We’ve been conceptualizing and planning this project for about a year, I think, and it hasn't truly felt real until now. Both myself and the director of ALVA have had a hard visualizing the end result, even though we knew what we wanted, so building it has brought life into the project. Also, I learned how to use a jigsaw, which made me feel so empowered! I can't wait to finish up this project and share the results!
Update September 2022!
We have done a couple workshops with kids at a local middle school to decorate the letters we've completed so far! The designs are decided on by the kids and they are painting the letters (we're there to help as well if they need assistance)! This middle school is located in a very diverse area of Winchester, so the kids decided to decorate the “L” with the flags of all the kids’ families’ backgrounds! The “R” is a mash up of a few designs, it's basically an explosion of color. It's always a blast working with kids on these kinds of art projects. Looking forward to updating with more progress very soon!
On a more personal note, I'd love to share a bit about my role in ALVA. I am the Director of Marketing Media in Arte Libre VA, which includes running all our social media and helping to create marketing materials. The image at the beginning of this post is part is a social media post I put together of an update on this project! It's been really fun to learn what looks good and performs well on our socials. I'm learning so much working with ALVA, I can feel myself growing in my professional and personal development. I'm also building my own career path and position within ALVA based on our needs and what I want to do. It’s all very exciting, and I can’t wait to see where this takes me.