Alecia Dawn Young Selected to Create Public Artwork for Larimer Education and Squash Center
Headshot of Alecia Dawn Young by Sean Carroll
The Art Supply Co. (TASC) and Steel City Squash (SCS) are thrilled to announce that Alecia Dawn Young will be designing and creating a public artwork titled Rooted Momentum on the Steel City Squash Larimer Education and Squash Center.
This mural considers how community centers are fertile spaces for collaboration, creativity, and liberatory endeavors through a bright ceramic tile and acrylic paint composition that expands across 1,600 square feet of the exterior and interior walls of the future community center and youth development hub.
TASC led a local open call for artwork in the fall, bringing in submissions from artists around the area. A selection committee including stakeholders from TASC, SCS, GBBN (the architecture firm on the project) and the Larimer Consensus Group (the neighborhood group) narrowed down the pool to three artists, who were invited to go through a paid design process. These three artists, PBJ Customs, Industrial Arts Workshop, and Alecia Dawn Young, went on to speak directly with members of both the SCS and neighborhood communities during a workshop held on January 11, 2024. Over the following weeks, the artists created design proposals for public artworks in a variety of materials working with feedback from the selection committee and members of the public.
SCS’s new facility, named the Larimer Education and Squash Center, will display the artwork on the exterior of the building. The artwork will combine ceramic tiles and paint in a design to honor the spirit of the Larimer neighborhood and the programmatic mission of SCS. Steel City Squash envisioned its new home to be designed and built as a local and national destination facility that will create multiple revenue streams to support its program, facilitate multicultural engagement, and contribute to long-term sustainability.
Alecia Dawn Young is an artist, scholar, and founder of the creative wellness studio YOGAMOTIF. She believes that generating art and life are connected and invests her time in people, projects, and communities that explore these practices. Her work is grounded in the collective healing of Black m/others and embodied making that supports mental health. Alecia’s career spans a commitment to community arts education and wellness, rooted in making, teaching, and researching in the visual arts. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alfred University where she focused on 3-dimensional studies in wood, metal, and ceramic arts. After teaching in non-profit and public education for five years, Alecia obtained a Master of Arts Management from the H. John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently a practicing ceramic artist and Ph.D. student in the Applied Developmental Psychology program at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education.
In 2014, Steel City Squash introduced urban squash to Pittsburgh. The organization was founded by Talbott Simonds and Tim Wyant, who partnered to establish Steel City Squash with help from the Hillman Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, and the University of Pittsburgh. This program joined the Squash and Education Alliance (SEA) as its 19th member in 2015 and continues to support the community through education, mentoring, community service, travel and the sport of squash. Since its inception, Steel City Squash continues to inspire and motivate students from 4th through 11th grade to excel academically and envision their future by providing consistent and long term support to students and their families to achieve their postsecondary goals, all while exposing them to the culture of the sport of squash.