#HEROESMAKE | MEET TIARRA BELL
Meet Tiarra Bell
Even at a young age, Tiarra gravitated towards building; reflecting on her childhood, she shared vivid recollections of watching from afar as her dad completed build projects, never being allowed to work with him.
‘Destiny’--as described by Tiarra-- would come along, opening the door for her to fully explore her curiosities around building in a safe space along with her peers. While a student at Science Leadership Academy’s Center City Campus, Tiarra along with a group of 9th grade young women spent 6 months designing and fabricating two rolling hangout pods for the cafe at SLA’s Beeber Campus. It all started with a club the young women created called, “Random Acts of Kindness”, initiated as a way to get fellow students involved in making improvements to the ailing facility their school had moved into. Their initiative led to @tinywpa‘s Alex Gilliam getting involved, bringing a @cognizant grant to support their efforts. The all girl team provided the passion and Alex brought the leadership, skills and tools to help the young women realize their hangout pods. The project helped the young women evolve their changmaking spirits, inspired the school to begin creating a #makerspace to support other student-led efforts to improve the facility and created the opportunity for Tiarra to begin honing her woodworking skills.
Tiarra had many special memories to share about her interactions with Tiny WPA, notably, she mentioned working at Kingsessing Recreation with fellow Building Hero Akh Jones in 2016, helping lead the creation of a pop-up #playground that 100’s of kids worked on that summer.
Tiarra insists that “it wasn’t the building that stuck”, throughout her experiences with the @beabuildinghero Project and Tiny WPA. She reports the long-lasting lessons: being independent, finding solutions and making a habit of learning by watching others, as the highlight of her experiences.
@risd1877 would be Tiarra’s next educational destination. Far away from her home and church family, she was saddened and divulged that her freshman year was “depressing” as a result of the disconnection to community and family.
Once her furniture design major began to take shape, she could begin to explore her personal and deep connection to building. She stated, “RISD taught me WHY I wanted to build.” Storytelling through furniture making, is how she explains her furniture design approach. During a mentorship under Peter Mabeo of Mabeo Furniture located in Botswana Tiarra honed her skills of intertwining her world views and ideas, with her furniture making, creating tangible objects that prompt inquiry and discussion. A product of her mentor relationship, Tiarra would design the Purity Mirror, an abstract interpretation of Kalahari Desert sand dunes and the merging of Botswana culture and her deep-rooted Christian beliefs, the sand dunes symbolizing the pure relationship between mankind and the land. She further explains that the process of altering the wood speaks to how something becomes pure as defined by the Bible. The Purity Mirror, made from local Panga panga wood in Botswana and was handcrafted by local craftsmen using woodworking techniques commonly used in Botswana. It has been featured in the 2019 International Contemporary Furniture Show and the 2019 Milan Design Week.
Tiarra is scheduled to graduate from RISD this Spring. Last reported, Tiarra was working on her graduation project, but hadn’t made a definite decision on what she would produce, based partly on her tool resources and not being in the furniture workshop at school. Despite the current climate, she’s ecstatic to be back home, amongst family and community. She reports that now, she and Dad work alongside one another and he now asks her questions about woodworking. We’re excited to catch up with Tiarra post graduation and find out what new questions she’s answering with her design work.
If you want to know more about Tiarra and keep abreast of her upcoming projects, she can be found at bellafontestudio.com.
#4017lancaster #phillymade #designphilly #madeinphilly #weekofmaking @icff_official @mabeofurniture @milan.design.week
#HEROESMAKE OVERVIEW
Tiny WPA’s new series highlights the Building Heroes, their numerous talents, the contributions they have made to Philadelphia through building and design, and the evolving things that they are making, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and Philadelphia’s Stay at Home Order. Unsurprisingly, the Heroes have not stopped making during these challenging times; just the opposite. Making is still very much part of their lives and our lives, though we see it now with a new (more expansive) lens to include baking, building, tinkering, painting, drawing, cooking, home repair, shoe making… etc. Even during ‘normal’ times we are constantly inspired by the Building Heroes that we are lucky to know and work with on a daily basis; it is even more true now. #HEROESMAKE is intended to shine a light on these amazing individuals and their endeavors.