“Snapshot” Sculpture with Community Mosaics (Completed 2019; Ongoing Maintenance by Harris County Starting Spring 2020)
Project Partners: Art Uniti, BakerRipley Leonel Castillo Community Center, Cardno, Fresh Arts (Fiscal Sponsorship), GNMD, Historic Near Northside Civic Club, Houston Parks Board, Impact Stone and La Nova Tile
The Snapshot sculpture at the BakerRipley Leonel Castillo Community Center was dedicated on November 18, 2019. The Houston artist team of Tami Moschioni and Nicola Parente, founders of Art Uniti, created this dynamic, colorful and interactive art sculpture, which was partly funded by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, GNMD and Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia..
“Snapshot” is a steel sculpture made by metal craftsman Spencer J. Elliott that forms a sky frame to capture a view of Houston’s beautiful downtown skyline. This permanent sculpture is located adjacent to the community center near the bike trail entrance. Visitors to the White Oak Bayou trail and the community center are encouraged to snap selfie photos with the sculpture that frame the downtown Houston skyline and post their photos on social media using #snapshotsculpture.
“Snapshot” represents the celebration of community and the connection to Houston’s downtown from the Historic Near Northside neighborhood. The concrete base of the sculpture has over 10,000 tiny mosaic tiles that form 108 medallions. Workshops led by the artists and conducted at the BakerRipley Leonel Castillo Community Center allowed community residents and their
families to create the unique mosaic designs on each of the medallions. The background tile patterns are blue, which is symbolic of water and which represent Houston’s nickname of “Bayou City” and the adjacent White Oak Bayou.
Lyons Enhancement Project (In Progress)
The Lyons Avenue Enhancement project is funded by Saint Arnold Brewing Company’s Santo de Mayo/Art Car 5K. The Greater Northside Management District, with help from Open Architecture Houston, cultivated ideas for additional, local improvement projects. We determined that art enhancements and bike accessibility were at the top of the list. Combining those two ideas, we developed a project that would place bike racks painted by local artists in key spots around Lyons Avenue. The prototype bike rack has been completed by Blumenthal Metal.
