MEADVILLE, Pa. – July 24, 2007 – The Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Core Communities Program awarded Allegheny College's Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED) three internships for this summer.
Eleven communities across the state were awarded internships to implement art and greening projects. Meadville is the only community to be awarded more than one intern.
KPB/CEED interns are working with CEED's director, Professor of Art Amara Geffen, to complete the three community-improvement projects this summer. The projects include two murals and a garden.
Berry Breene, who graduated from Allegheny in May, has designed a mural for the Park Avenue side of the Hovis Annex on Chestnut Street. The mural, which will highlight Meadville’s history as a mill town, will be completed as a community “Painting-Bee” that brings intergenerational groups together.
The project is funded by KPB and a gift from the Richards Family in memory of artist Gwen Barboni, former director of the Meadville Council on the Arts.
Ariel Dungca, a landscape architecture student at the University of Massachusetts, is collaborating with Geffen on designs for a garden in an empty lot owned by the Meadville Redevelopment Authority. The lot, located adjacent to the historic Market House, will establish a community green space in the heart of Meadville's central business district.
The project will demonstrate storm water interventions through the creation of rain gardens and rainwater harvesting. The design includes brick patio areas, rain swails and native plants. Bricks for the patio areas and walkway, salvaged from the renovations of Allegheny's Pelletier Library patio, have been provided by Associated Contractors.
Josh Dracup, a 2007 graduate of Allegheny College, has designed a sculptural mural for an area adjacent to Mill Run between Voodoo Brewery and a parking garage. The hand-painted 3-D sculptural relief is being constructed of reclaimed road signs and will include the words “Meta MASH,” a play on mash as a product and stage of the beer brewing process.
The KPB internship program, which mirrors the goals of CEED's Arts & Environment Initiative, is a partnership between KPB, PA Downtown Center and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
