Denver, PA. Art students from Cocalico HS pose in front of the mural after Wednesday's event. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PA Turnpike) unveiled a new mural at the Bowmansville Service Plaza on the PA Turnpike – with artwork created by Cocalico High School art students. This is the sixteenth piece created in conjunction with Art Sparks, a PCA and PA Turnpike partnership to bring student-created, locally relevant artwork to service plazas across the PA Turnpike’s 565-mile system. December 4, 2024.
Asia Tabb is the Host and Producer for WITF’s The Spark.
She began her start in radio when she joined legendary radio/ host producer, Doc Christian. She worked closely with Doc for her role on “The Gospel Express, on WHOV 88.1 FM and was a host for “Unrestricted Praise” at Praise FM.
Previously she was an anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana at KTAL/KMSS. Asia also worked as a Multi-Media Journalist at WHP-TV here in Harrisburg, PA.
Asia got her break into news at KTVO in Ottumwa, Ia. While the 2020 caucuses were gearing up. Asia followed many candidates through their campaign trail from Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and 46th President of the United States Joe Biden.
Asia was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She graduated from Old Dominion University in 2018 with a major in Communications.
Asia is extremely friendly so don’t be afraid to say hi if you see her out and about.
Denver, PA. Art students from Cocalico HS pose in front of the mural after Wednesday's event. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PA Turnpike) unveiled a new mural at the Bowmansville Service Plaza on the PA Turnpike – with artwork created by Cocalico High School art students. This is the sixteenth piece created in conjunction with Art Sparks, a PCA and PA Turnpike partnership to bring student-created, locally relevant artwork to service plazas across the PA Turnpike’s 565-mile system. December 4, 2024.
Aired; February 5th, 2025.
Each service plaza along the Pennsylvania Turnpike now contains a mural depicting landscapes and attractions in their areas. The murals were created by local high school students under a program called Art Sparks, a joint effort of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Turnpike Commission.
Mark Compton, CEO of the Turnpike Commission, says they want to make the service plazas more welcoming to visitors.
“As we see it, about 550 ,000 travelers use this system every day and very few ever get off the system other than where their destination is. So, we wanted to make sure that some of the beautiful places around the Turnpike were able to be viewed from the service plaza, and that really was why we did what we did.”
Jamie Dunlap of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts says this project had a huge impact on the students.
“It’s given them a chance to be a part of the creation of public art that is community driven and to work with a professional artist and to have that experience and to work with a client to then have amazing artwork produced at the end that is installed.”
Dana Attivo is an art teacher on the very first mural project. The project took a few years, however, it brought the students together while creating the mural.
“It’s been quite a few years since we’ve done this, but we were super excited to participate, and one of the things that, speaking of the benefits that I noticed in my classroom is that group specifically, we had some small groups. We had a couple of friend groups that would come in and hang out with each other, and most of them were juniors that were working on the project. And by their senior year, it created such a different, tight -knit community in our classroom, because they all had to work together with each other. They weren’t just coming in and doing their own thing. So we really loved the opportunity to put some work out into our community. We really loved the community that it created in our own classroom, and we loved the opportunity to work with a professional artist.”
Katie Trainer and her students were the final group to create their murals. Trainers believe it forced her students to learn about local landscapes in their religion.
“So getting them involved with the design, like what’s important to you guys? You can’t like at first all the students seem to be hesitant, like, oh, what do you mean Shippensburg is important? And it’s like, well, no, it’s what’s like good. What’s the value of your heritage or your town? What are some of the iconic buildings or what do you guys like to do? And so, getting them invested in the community aspect is always a very big deal. And from there, I can kind of find the common themes of what they’ve chosen to express and merge them together, figure out how it makes sense and then get painting.”
