Fineview & Perry Hilltop - Community Pride Project
For this project, we will be working together with youth from our communities to design and create a Gateway Sign & T-Shirts that will promote and instill pride our communities.
Leader
Joanna Deming
Location
Federal Street & Perrysville Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212
About the project
Perry Hilltop and Fineview are two diverse and under-resourced communities on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Both organizations function with volunteer boards and limited resources, yet play an important role in community advocacy by promoting equitable development, preserving green space, and ensuring residents access to City services.
For this project, we will be working together with youth from our communities to design and create a Gateway Sign & T-Shirts that will promote and instill pride in our communities.
The Gateway Sign will be made from stone and will include a beautiful mosaic mural. The mural will be created by high school students and their art teacher Sandy Kessler at The Pittsburgh Project with artistic guidance from Linda Wallen. Students have already begun interviewing elders of our community to inform the design—rooting it in the history of our communities.
The T-Shirts will be designed by students from The Pittsburgh Project as well. The students will have the opportunity to produce the shirts, by screen-printing their design at Art Image Resource (AIR). They will each keep a shirt. The remaining shirts will then be worn by youth we take to local sporting and cultural events, as a result of our partnership with Tickets for Kids. The t-shirts will promote pride in our community and allow easy identification of the group. Although they are more expensive, we want to use union made t-shirts in a bright color (preferably florescent).
The Steps
Gateway Sign
1. Students will interview elders from the community. (October 2016)
2. Students will draft designs and get input from the community. (Late 2016)
3. Obtain necessary permits from the city. (Early 2017)
4. Students will work with artist to paint clay elements for mural. (Early 2017)
5. The wall for the sign will be constructed and the mural will be installed. (May 2017)
6. Ribbon cutting and community celebration. (June 2017)
T-Shirts
1. Students will brainstorm designs. (January-February 2017)
2. Students will draft designs and get input from the community. (Early 2017)
3. Purchase t-shirts. (February 2017)
4. Students will print t-shirts at Art Image Resource. (March 2017)
Why we‘re doing it
We are undertaking this project, because we want to engage youth and instill pride in our communities.