Alison Zapata

Alison Zapata works as a professional artist specializing in paintings, ranging from collage to portraits and murals. She especially loves working with vibrant colors and large spaces to convey the energy and life of her topic through murals.

She enjoys incorporating photography, textured papers, and other multimedia materials to give the works depth and richness.

Experienced with over twenty-one years in the classroom, Alison has a natural ability to create a dynamic environment in which students thrive in their creativity and love for learning.  Having obtained a BA in Art Education at Carlow University, Alison has developed engaging, child-centered arts programming throughout Pittsburgh in pre-k to high school.  Her ability to effectively communicate ideas through visually stunning painted images reaches not only her students, but parents, colleagues, and the community as well. She works closely with teachers on a weekly basis to develop arts integrated experiences specifically designed to link the arts to literacy and the Common Core Standards.

In addition, she has over twelve years of experience with students with severe developmental or behavioral disorders, including autism while teaching at Familylinks. Alison has received additional art education training through Gateway to the Arts, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Lincoln Center’s Aesthetic Education, and Wolf Trap Institute.  She is a Resident Artist in the Artists in Education Partnership through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.  She was awarded participation in the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Art and Society: Brazil/U.S. Educational Partnership.

Alison co-founded Cocinando Con Arte, a project designed to promote cultural preservation of Latinas in Pittsburgh through art making, collection of recipes and life stories led by Visual Artist Alison Zapata & Chef Keyla Nogueira Cook.  Learn more about Cocinando Con Arte in this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Alison recently completed restoration on a newly-uncovered Mail Pouch Tobacco sign in Ford City, PA. Read more about her project in this Post-Gazette article, or this article from The Herald.

Watch Alison on the Daniel Tiger show:

Learn more about Alison’s collaborative Residency Project with Pittsburgh Beechwood PreK-5 and Latino Community Center:

And, learn how to create your own mixed media collage at home with Alison!