An art club at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford campus is currently working toward breaking a Guinness world record: creating the largest dice mosaic ever. Husky Art Pack, the club behind this endeavor, is fundraising to begin work on the project, which they have called the “Art of the Roll.”
The current world record belongs to a piece containing 40,000 dice and spanning approximately 100 square feet. The “Art of the Roll” plans to create a piece comprised of over 200,000 that would span approximately 30 square meters.
The piece is being headed by five students: fourth-semester students Daniela Salas and Vivian Mendoza, who serve as co-leads and marketing directors, and eighth-semester students Jethro Asinas, Shania Chacon and Dorian Robinson. Asinas is a co-lead and a data analyst, Chacon is the lead graphic designer and Robinson is the documentary director.
These students have collaborated with Johnny Face Off, better known as Design with Dice, to create the mosaic. Face Off is “an innovative artist who specializes in creating stunning works of art using dice as his primary medium,” according to the Art of the Roll’s website.
Salas, who founded the Husky Art Pack during her second semester, talked about the project and the club in an interview with the Daily Campus.
Salas talked about how this idea came to fruition.
“[Asinas] met the artist that we’re working with, Johnny Face Off… at one of their art shows, and they basically connected over the idea of breaking a world record for the world’s largest dice mosaic,” said Salas. “[Asinas] brought the idea to us to see if we could get students and just UConn involved in general, so we conceptualized the whole art program behind it.”
The “Art of the Roll” is currently fundraising for the project through Ignite, an annual fundraising event hosted by UConn. According to Salas, Husky Art Pack is the first club on the Stamford campus to participate in Ignite. Salas talked about the fundraising process and what the money is going toward.
“As of right now we’re kind of in the fundraising stages, since we do need around $30,000 [to fund the project],” said Salas. “So as of right now we’re at $10,000 from internal fundraising, and then from Ignite [on Feb. 18] we had amazing student turnout. We have had one of the highest student donor percentages… it was amazing seeing all of the student turnout and the support.”
According to Salas, the funding will be used to purchase the dice, pay for the Guinness world record certification and to pay for the framing that will go around the mosaic. Donations are currently being collected on their website.
The assembly of the mosaic will take place over a two-week process at the beginning of next semester.
Salas talked about how it felt being able to lead a project of this scale on the Stamford campus.
“I find it astonishing…just seeing how overwhelming the support is on campus and seeing the direct impact that it’s making on students…seeing people enjoy and have fun and really interact with the different creative programs that we’re offering…it’s been really nice kind of seeing how this small idea stemmed into something so big,” said Salas.
Outside of the “Art of the Roll,” Husky Art Pack hosts events “related with creativity, crafts, expression,” including field trips to museums, according to Salas. More information can be found about the “Art of the Roll” on their website and on the Husky Art Pack’s Instagram page, @huskyartpack.