A nearly eight-foot-tall mosaic sculpture called “Mother Earth” is taking shape at Milford Mill Market Square in Randallstown, and the nonprofit behind it is asking neighbors of all ages to help finish the job before the community build wraps up on Aug. 21. The piece depicts a female figure holding a solar-powered lantern aloft, dressed in a flowing gown covered in fruit and vegetable motifs meant to honor local Afro-Caribbean culture, African American heritage, and the neighborhood's renewed access to fresh food.
As reported by CBS News Baltimore, the nonprofit Art with a Heart is inviting community members of all ages to help create the permanent public artwork. Volunteers have spent the summer contributing stained glass tiles and ceramic thumbprints to the sculpture, work that concludes this Friday, according to Baltimore Fishbowl.
From Steel Frame to Community Canvas
Before any tiles went on, the sculpture existed as a 200-pound welded stainless steel mesh and frame fabricated by sculptor Howard Connelly at his Eastern Shore studio in Cambridge, Maryland. Connelly shipped the raw steel base to Art with a Heart in Baltimore, where fiberglass layers and mosaic tile work were added, per a Facebook post detailing the build process.
The finished piece is destined for a permanent spot at Milford Mill Market Square, the shopping center at the corner of Liberty and Milford Mill roads. That site was redeveloped after a former Giant supermarket relocated, leaving nearby residents with limited fresh food access — a gap since filled by the addition of a Grocery Outlet and a Royal Farms, according to project materials from Milford Mill Market Square Public Art. Developer ARLS Properties LLC partnered with county and federal agencies to rehabilitate the plaza, a transformation Hoodline first covered in its report on the shopping center's groundbreaking.
Federal Funds and a Community Coalition
The public art project is funded by Baltimore County using federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars set aside for commercial corridor revitalization, according to Baltimore County Community Planning. The same source outlines the coalition that selected Art with a Heart to design and build the sculpture: ARLS Properties, the Greater Randallstown Community Development Organization, Baltimore County, and the District 4 Arts and Sciences Commission all took part, with developer representatives noting that while commercial tenants bring retail, public art gives a location its community identity.
Art with a Heart itself has deep roots in this kind of hyper-local, hands-on project. Founded in March 2000 by former attorney Randi Alper Pupkin, the organization grew from a trunk-of-the-car operation into a regional nonprofit that now runs up to 16,000 visual art classes a year across Baltimore schools, shelters, and senior centers, JMORE reports. The group marked its 25th anniversary in 2025 after completing more than 300 public art installations.
A Leadership Change and a Track Record
Pupkin retired as executive director in June 2025 after 25 years building the nonprofit, following an earlier 14-year career in construction litigation, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. Leadership passed to Deputy Director Megan Gatto as the organization took on the Randallstown project.
“Mother Earth” isn't the group's first large-scale community mosaic. In November 2021, Art with a Heart unveiled “The Heart of Baltimore,” a 1,000-pound, 6-by-8-foot mosaic heart featuring 2,500 ceramic hearts made by nearly 1,000 volunteers, permanently installed at the University of Maryland Medical Center as a pandemic-era tribute to healthcare workers. That $130,000 installation, detailed by JMORE, established the template the organization is now applying in Randallstown.
Part of a Larger Investment Along Liberty Road
The sculpture arrives amid a broader wave of public spending along the Liberty Road corridor. Baltimore County leaders broke ground in March on a joint facility topping $41 million that will house a new Randallstown library branch and a Department of Recreation and Parks center, in an area the project's planners have flagged as high on the CDC Social Vulnerability Index, according to a county announcement shared on Facebook.
That investment follows the county and state's 2021 commitment of $7 million to build Greens Lane Park in Randallstown, a 7.7-acre green space and the county's first STEAM-themed recreation center, sited next to the Randallstown Community Center off Liberty Road, per the Baltimore County government. Taken together, the mosaic, the market square, and the new library and parks projects reflect a multi-year push to bring investment and community identity back to a corridor that lost its anchor grocery store years ago.
