Two and a half days
to build
a giant ship in a bottle.
After several months of studying a small model that Shari
Marks built of the glass addition at Hartford Public Library, working with Don
Breslauer and Sam Posey on placement of the pieces in the space, consultation
with Thad Meyerriecks from James Bourlet, Inc on the size of mural pieces to be
transported from the Sharon studio and the Winsted mill, the team was ready to
go. Or at least we were close.
The installation was anything but ordinary, starting with
disassembling almost every piece to fit through a 7-½-foot door, our largest
opening into the library's exhibit space. Architect Don Hughlett, in one
inspired moment on the first day, figured out how to corkscrew the giant 27-foot
helix through the door. He and his wife, Helen, were part of an unbeatable crew
that included Thad, RJ, Brett and Augusto from Bourlet, Sam and John Posey, Tim and Shari
Marks, Don Breslauer, and climbing expert Davin Lindy, who spent the better
part of two days 28 feet up on scaffolding, rigging mural sections with ropes
and karabiners for hoisting pieces of the mural onto the supports.
One wonderful bit of luck, Judy Griesedieck was in town for
a NYC photojournalists' convention and came up to spend a few days shooting the
installation. I would never have realized how important this was until I saw
the photos she got documenting every moment of the work. Long after this
exhibit goes down I will remember how magnificent it looked in there and the
incredible effort everyone gave to put it up.
Click here to view more photos of the installation.
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Greater Hartford
Students visit HPL
Throughout the run of the exhibit, we have invited K-12
students from the Greater Hartford area schools to visit the library and help
work on the giant 8-foot recycled paper pulp 'Link' that will represent Hartford
in the mural. From the forty 4- and 5-year olds who came in one session to
work with Elaine Hoffman and me, to the 63 5th and 6th
graders from Achievement First, to the high-school students from the Greater
Hartford Arts Academy, it has been one great day after another for AMP. My thanks to all the school principals,
teachers, day-care and after-school-group leaders who made these visits possible.
To adopt the cheer the Achievement First students gave me after our morning
together, let's 'raise the roof' for all of you who make these trips possible
for these kids.
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Aetna Wadsworth
Atheneum
Family Day with AMP
On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, the Wadsworth Atheneum
invited AMP to come work with families on
a project that featured a
juxtaposition of the superb Rembrandt portraits now on exhibit at the museum and
the AMP working portraits at HPL.
Over 100 people attended the morning-long event, making the
trip from the gallery to the library in a few waves. Then everyone had a chance
to paint some portraits of their own. Don and Helen Hughlett, Sam Posey, Kim
Hohlfeld and Judy Albright came to help out, setting out watercolors, crayons,
drawing pencils, and paper. Along with terrific assistance from Anne Rice and
Johanna Plummer from the Wadsworth, our crew was over the top and everyone had
a great time. We are thinking of taking this group on the road!
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GFWC fundraiser
for AMP
at The Hartford Club
On Friday evening, November 13th, the General Federation of Women's Clubs Connecticut hosted a reception at the library and dinner for the American Mural Project. The library was
packed for the cocktail reception and the dinner was an elegant affair with
Diane Smith (Living Modern in CT) as MC, and Joe Furey (WTIC Meteorologist) by her side at the
podium. The music from Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts had people dancing, the food was fabulous, and the
spirit was warm.
Thank you to Kim Hohlfeld and the volunteers from the GFWC/CT
for all your work to make this happen for AMP.
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Hartford Public
Library, a great two months for AMP
As we come close to taking everything down at the library on
December 17th, there are so many people to thank for making all of this
possible. Certainly Matt Poland and Jenny Benedict for taking a chance on this
idea in the first place, Debra Perry for lining up and guiding all of the kids'
programs, Mary Crean and Irene Iwan for their help with photos and downloads at random and surprise moments, Ted Sheiber for
finding lights and extension cords, opening loading-dock doors, and answering all my
calls and emails. I want to include Nelson, Leo, Lewis, Auden, Lena, Lisa, Patrick, Jose, Tony and the entire Hartford Public Library staff in
this thanks, all of whom have become great new friends of mine. No matter what
I needed, they were there to help. I will miss coming in to MY library, and I
don't even have a library card.
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 Alcoa Action Days do
the trick!
In a full-blown effort to get our Wetlands approval for 100
Whiting, future home of the mural, we enlisted the help of employees from
Howmet Alcoa. Over two Action Days, the volunteers pulled invasive plants from
our future woodland park area, replacing them with approved New England wetland
plants, and, finally, filling a dumpster the size of a football field with
everything we unearthed, including an old sofa and some tractor tires.
Gwen Ashbaugh, our landscape expert from Lenard Engineering,
guided the project and wrote the final report for approval. Scott Eisenlohr,
head of Inland Wetlands, has given his blessing and we are one GIANT step
closer to a building permit.
Huge thanks to everyone who came out to help from Howmet and
Sterling and made this happen.
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1,000 tongue depressors arrive from
HealthCorps Fair in Arizona!
In October, Metro Tech High School volunteers ran an AMP booth at the
"Boo at the Zoo" event for HealthCorps
in Phoenix, Arizona.
Thanks to Rob Lunde who suggested and orchestrated the AMP project for us and Lindsay de La Montaigne who organized and ran the event, the mural project has added almost a thousand more tongue depressors to its collection, all of which will be glued together and incorporated into the final artwork.
Thank you Lindsay, Rob, and all the kids from Metro Tech. Awesome job!
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Media Coverage
As for publicity, our installation in Hartford has been
great for AMP. We have been lucky enough to have had stories appear in the
Hartford Courant, the Republican American, interviews on Connecticut Style with Desiree Fontaine (WTNH), Where We Live with
John Dankosky (WNPR), and Eyewitness News with Dan Kain (WFSB). Still to come, on December 28th at 10am, Scot Haney is doing a piece on Better Connecticut. In addition I am really looking forward to the story
coming
out in the January issue of Hartford Magazine by Carol Latter, with photographs by Steven Schwartz.
And it's not over yet...... the production of Gees Bend at the
Hartford Stage is coming up in February. Can't wait.
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The
American Mural Project is a three-dimensional painting so large that
a
special building is being created for it. It is a celebration of
American ingenuity
and commitment to work. The Project seeks to
inspire, to invite collaboration,
and to reveal to people of all ages
the many contributions they can make to
American culture. It is
intended as a tribute and a challenge.
Board of Directors: Barbara Douglass, Frank Finch, Rosita Forte-Dobson,
Jim Garfield, Ellen Griesedieck, Joe Griesedieck, William Harding, Susan Lane,
Thad Meyerriecks, Gayle Moraski, Sam Posey, Laurie Roy,
JoAnn Ryan, Rosellen Schnurr, David Stack, John Whitman
Founding Board: Huyler Held, Ivan Kronenfeld, Paul Newman,
Mehmet Oz, Peter Philip, Ileene Smith Sobel, Frank Stella
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