About Laurel True

Laurel True is an artist, teacher and advocate of creative expression. Through her studio, True Mosaics Studio, she has specialized in creative placemaking, public art and architectural mosaics for the past 30 years. She has created architectural installations, mosaic murals and sculptural forms for parks, transit systems, streetscapes, hospitals, social and education centers, and commercial and residential spaces across the US and in Haiti, Europe, Mexico, South and Central America and Africa.

She has an active studio practice through which she explores concepts of beauty, identity and perception using juxtapositions of materials and iterative processes.

True co-founded the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, California and has fostered education in the mosaic arts through teaching and speaking around the world. She is Founding Director of Global Mosaic Project, which provides art education and entrepreneurial training to underserved communities in urban and developing areas through socially engaged art. True has trained thousands of students, volunteers, artists, teachers and community members in the creation of over 200 projects globally that contribute to environmental beautification, economic and community development, well-being and social justice.

True apprenticed with artist Isaiah Zagar after receiving a degree in African Studies from University of Wisconsin. She has studied at Studio Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy; Universite Chiek Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal; Parsons School of Design in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.  She participated in/partnered with TEDWomen, International Urban Mosaic Intervention in Chile, International Community Mural Arts Program in Turkey through the US State Department, Partners In Health, UNOPS, Jacmel Mozaik Haiti and recently published her first book.