Artists donate to children’s center
Artists from around the world have donated mosaic panels to decorate the walls of the Joseph H. Messina Children’s Center, creating a permanent outdoor art gallery.
Fort Myers Artist Eve Lynch of Kraken Mosaics organized the undertaking, which she called “The Messina Mural Project.”
Joseph H. Messina Children’s Center Director Tammy Aronson sent out a call to artists last year to help transform the large outdoor environment into a natural playscape. Lynch responded to the call and started rallying mosaic artists from throughout the world using the social media site Flickr.
“Within a few days of my posting, 20 artists from all over the world agreed to contribute and within the next few months my mailbox was flooded with beautiful artwork depicting local wildlife and themes that would engage children. I even had a 7-year-old from Philadelphia make and contribute a colorful mosaic of her handprint,” Lynch said
Donations were received from countries as far away as the United Kingdom, Germany, St. Lucia and Canada.
Lynch then began laying out the mosaics in small groupings on the outdoor walls along a sunny breezeway named “Linda Lane” after Child Care of Southwest Florida Development Director Linda McNabb.
“We are so thankful to Eve and her army of mosaic artists. Because of their vision, the installation instantly transformed the space into a vibrant, tropical art space, adding to the creative atmosphere that we began months ago,” Aronson said.
“The Messina Mural Project has come to life in the form of a permanent outdoor art gallery,” Lynch added. She also maintains a blog about the project with pictures at messinamural.blogspot.com/
The Joseph H. Messina Children’s Center is located at 4650 Fowler Street and is one of very few centers that offer evening care. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The center is nationally accredited and is licensed to care for 105 children. For more information, please call Aronson at 278-1148.
Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc., is a private non-profit organization dedicated to providing high quality child care services throughout Southwest Florida. The agency provides child care for 700 children from infancy through age 8 at its six nationally accredited child care centers throughout Lee and Hendry counties. In addition, the agency conducts training for child care workers, and administers the federal food program in 14 counties for child care centers and family child care homes. More information is available at www.ccswfl.org.
-submitted by Susan Bennett