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SANTA ANA, Calif. – The City of Santa Ana is proud to announce its selection as the only city in California to receive a new public arts installation provided by international arts organization Mural Mosaic in its winter 2025 tour.
Santa Ana’s Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Agency (PRCSA) and Mural Mosaic’s Global Roots Project will unveil the new America Connects Heart & Home National Mural Mosaic on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Jerome Community Center.
“We are deeply grateful to Mural Mosaic for selecting Santa Ana as the home for this groundbreaking art installation,” Mayor Valerie Amezcua said. “This mural is more than just a piece of art; it is a vibrant celebration of the rich diversity within our community. It will serve as a lasting symbol of unity, creativity, and the power of art to bring us together. We are proud to have it as a centerpiece at this neighborhood community center, where it will inspire generations to come.”
The America Connects Heart & Home National Mural Mosaic showcases the creative collaboration of hundreds of individual artists from across the United States and around the world. This collaboration offered a unique opportunity not only to install meaningful art in a park, but also to engage the Santa Ana community in the creative process.
Throughout the month of January, community seniors, students, athletes, neighborhood associations, and other recreation participants crafted individual tiles as part of the mural project. As part of the mural’s progression, Mural Mosaic offers an active view of submitted tiles on their website, where participants can further engage with their artwork.
In its commitment to the City’s 2022 Parks Master Plan to improve quality of life and address inequities in green spaces, PRCSA increased efforts to produce public art in park spaces and applied for the opportunity to work with Mural Mosaic. Upon meeting application requirements, the Jerome Recreation Center was selected as one of only six communities across the United States and Canada to participate in the winter 2025 tour. This selection was based on demonstrating the ability to provide:
Adequate space for the art installation
Creative opportunity to a diverse group of participants
Assurance it could keep the installation in its original location for at least two years
The organization stated: “The Mural Mosaic team is elated to have the opportunity to have the America Connects Heart & Home National Mural installed in Santa Ana. We hope to inspire those who visit it to explore their creative side and to create works of art that bring them happiness; we encourage everyone to find their own unique way of expressing themselves through art.”
Community members are invited to join the mosaic unveiling ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. at the Jerome Recreation Center, 726 S. Center St., Santa Ana. Additional information regarding the mural project is located at www.muralmosaic.com/heart/.
About Mural Mosaic
Mural Mosaic is a process invented by artist Lewis Lavoie that takes individual paintings and places them in a specific order to create a large painting. The first Mural Mosaic was created in 1997 for a retaining wall next to an art gallery in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. Five years later, in 2004, Lavoie took his process and involve other artists. During a 24-hour “paint-a-thon” to raise money for a local charity, Lavoie pre-prepared panels with color tones and shapes, then using the color guidelines on the prepared panels as inspiration, artists created a painting using their own style. When all the panels were reunited, the final image was a huge success.
Following the success of the “Fiddler” Mural Mosaic had multiple requests for other projects – No other art medium has the ability to include multiple participants, styles, voices, subject matters that all come together in to one unified cohesive beautiful masterpiece image. Mural Mosaic unique ability to be fully inclusive allowing the uniqueness of individuals while maintaining singular voice has made it the ultimate project for communities and schools as well fine art that can tells multiple stories. Mural Mosaic has orchestrated hundreds of collaborative murals around North America involving thousands of artists and non- artists alike from all over the world.
About Santa Ana
Santa Ana is downtown for the world-famous Orange County, California. It is the County Seat, headquarters to national corporations including a Fortune 500 company, and home to a vibrant evening scene and arts community. Over 1,700 City employees work hard every day to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community to ensure public safety, a prosperous economic environment, opportunities for our youth, and a high quality of life for residents. Learn more at www.santa-ana.org.