Holy Cross Students and Neighbors to Gather for Dedication of Community Mosaic

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross students and neighbors will gather at the College Hill Civic Association Building (79 Kendig Street) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 24 for the dedication and unveiling of “Civitas Branching,” a 24-foot wide by three-foot tall mosaic, created by students and community members last semester. The mosaic has been installed on the side of the Civic Association Building. A reception and all-ages performance by the Pumpernickel Puppet Theatre will follow.

The dedication will include a tree-planting ceremony. An apple and a pear tree, chosen because of their depiction in the mosaic, will be planted outside of the Civic Association building. Shown in the mosaic with intertwining branching, the trees symbolize growth, change and history in the neighborhood.

Worcester Mayor Timothy Murray and City Councilors Barbara Haller and Paul Clancy are among the 500 community members invited to the dedication.

The mosaic project was part of a community-based learning course run through the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies last semester. Participants in the project met each Thursday evening to work on the mosaic under the direction of Hillary Sloate, a mosaicist and teacher at the Worcester Art Museum.

A resident of College Hill and a member of the Civic Association, Sloate says, “‘Civitas Branching’ reflects renewed cooperation and understanding between College Hill residents and Holy Cross. Not only did 28 students and residents come together to create a beautiful mosaic mural that symbolizes our history and future, but the process that we undertook to create ‘Civitas Branching’ was crucial to developing a new culture of respect between the College and the residents.”

The dedication of the mosaic coincides with a community clean-up at Cookson Park, at 10:30 a.m., and Academic Conference 2004, at which students will display the results of their work over the past year.