The horizontal art project is the fruit of the attentions of the brattleboro arts committee (TAC), now with two installations. At top is an essay by kate anderson about the arts and brattleboro.
The TAC committee
Doug Cox
Hugh Keelan
Judy Zemell
Sarah Rice,
Ken Schneck,
Mark Burke
Kate Anderson
MaryEllen Bixby
Staff Contact:
Barb Sondag, Town Manager
Installation #2 has been constructed by BUHS, Brattleboro Union High School students, and is located in the Harmony parking lot, just off Eliot Street.
Installation photographs by Kate Anderson.
Above: Ready to reveal
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•Garry Jones, Chair, Horizontal Art subcommittee
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•Glenn Rosinski, Mason, Consultant TAC/HA
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•Rich Holschuh, www.concretedetail.com , Consultant TAC/HA
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•Gary Blomgren, Director, Art Department, Brattleboro Union High School
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•Bill Forchion, Videographer
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•BUHS students (alphabetical order)
Anderson, Cassandra
Earley, Hannah
Gagnon-Burch, Ryan
Grubinger, Samuel
Gurney, Jesse
Johnson, Harrison
Kail, Wyatt
Klucken, Sarah Jayne
Lake, Jessica
McLoughlin, Mary
Owen, Colin
Stone, Devin
Above: Photo Credits Kate Anderson
Below: Photo Credits Vermont Views Magazine
Eventually, Brattleboro will be a town with a mosaic of original art in its sidewalks.
The Brattleboro Town Arts Committee (TAC), in conjunction with local citizen artists, concrete experts and town departments, is promoting its latest initiative: Horizontal Art (art etched onto, or placed into, the town’s sidewalks), a project which has required collaboration at many levels, from the local artists, citizen volunteers, town departments and TAC. It has been a team effort from the start.
The idea first popped into the head of Garry Jones, musician, local sculptor of large scale musical instruments and developer of art in all planes, during an Artists’ Town Meeting, held in January, 2010. Garry and TAC, especially one of its members, Kate Anderson, have worked hard to develop the idea over the intervening year.
An essential component to the success of the project has been the enthusiasm of the Department of Public Works (DPW) and its director, Steve Barrett under the direction of town manager, Barbara Sondag. Barrett steered the Arts Committee to slabs in need of replacement as potential installation sites and has provided the manpower and expertise to pour the slabs in conjunction with the artists. “Using already budgeted sidewalk replacement funds, this is a win/win for Brattleboro ,” said Barrett. “Like the bus shelter idea, it provides an outlet for Brattleboro's arts and artists.”
For its first effort, TAC formed its artistic partnership with the Department of Public Works, Hotel Pharmacy and the artists of Fulcrum Arts, Randi Solin and Natalie Blake for an installation on Elliot Street.
The next sidewalk project was tackled by an exciting team of artists: a Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) team under the guidance of Gary Blomgren, chairman of the Art Department. Blomgren was enthusiastic about becoming more involved in community art initiatives. "This project is a great way to connect the young artists at BUHS with the larger community in Brattleboro. Students will have the opportunity to give back to the community that has supported them so generously over the years. It will also give the students real experience in generating design plans, proposals, and creating community art." The team was guided in its efforts by TAC technical consultants, Rich Holschuh, of Concrete Detail (www.concretedetail.com) and Glen Rosinski, master mason.
Installation #1 was constructed by Fulcrum Arts, on Eliot Street. Photos by Vermont Views Magazine
And in better light, a final few photos
As I suspected, the magic of the rain brought out the full colors.
This Brattleboro Arts page is updated and changes topics, from time to time.
A prime mover of this event, Kate Anderson of Horizontal Art TAC, points out a detail of the installation.
She particularly wished mentioned:—
Nick Narchese, Hand of Man Artisan Builder, his son Eli, Ed Sofronovici, James Anderson videographer, Garry Jones Horizontal Art.
A few images from the finished installation. I will be intrigued to take a photo of it, shiny in the rain.
The installation is being made by Natalie Blake and Randi Solin of Fulcrum Arts, and friends.
I understood that there was another 2 or 3 hours work beyond the stage you see here necessary to complete the installation.
Committee Members observe and discuss the installation, while videographer James Anderson records progress.
Hugh Keelan chair of the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee (TAC) celebrates the installation with a cup of (Mocha) joe — and the first of many projected enhancements to the town this summer.
TAC Walks the Talk
Internationally renowned artists, Randi Solin and Natalie Blake, are about to take a walk in Brattleboro . A sidewalk, that is.
In a collaborative effort of the Town Arts Committee (TAC), Department of Public Works (DPW), Hotel Pharmacy and Fulcrum Arts, Solin and Blake’s artistic partnership, Elliot Street will be endowed with the first installation of Horizontal Art. Brattleboro , nationally known as an arts town, walks the talk with this project. Hotel Pharmacy is participating with financial support, and Solin and Blake bring their acclaimed artistry.
It's been a team effort from the start. Garry Jones, local sculptor of large scale musical instruments and developer of art in all planes, says the idea popped into his head during the Town Arts Committee Charrette in January, and has been working with Kate Anderson of TAC to develop the idea ever since. The Town Arts Committee conferred with Steve Barrett of the Department of Public Works who steered the Arts Committee to slabs in need of replacement as installation sites. “Using already budgeted sidewalk replacement funds, this is a win/win for Brattleboro ,” said Barrett. “Like the bus shelter idea, it provides an outlet for Brattleboro's arts and artists.”
Natalie Blake and Randi Solin, who, together comprise Fulcrum Arts had this to say ..."we are honored to be part of the first public art project of this kind.
A true acknowledgment that Brattleboro is woven together by artists. We come here to be undisturbed in the privacy of natural beauty; yet our boundless creativity should be illuminated as our best asset all over town. How fitting to start with this project: "diamonds on the souls of our shoes." We thank the pioneers of the Town Arts Committee for their hard work and vision. May this be the first of many.
According to Anderson , she and the Town Arts Committee are not done yet. “The next sidewalk will be tackled by an equally exciting team of artists, a BUHS team under the guidance of Gary Blomgren, Art Dept Chair.” Blomgren was enthusiatic and excited about becoming more involved in community art initiatives. "This project is a great way to connect the young artists at BUHS with the larger community in Brattleboro. Students will have the opportunity to give back to the community that has supported them so generously over the years. It will also give the students real experience in generating design plans, proposals, and creating community art."
Eventually, Brattleboro will be a town with a mosaic of original art as its sidewalks.
I'm Kate Anderson, I chair the Town Arts Committee — this is a Selectboard appointed Town committee with mandate to liaise between the community and the Town structure through the arts, so, to see the arts integrated into the socio-economic fabric of our community.
Partnerships and collaborations have been key, we've worked with a number of departments within the Town, the Dept of Public Works on what we call Horizontal Art, the DPW
has mounted photography on Town walls for us, a collaboration with WRC, the Union Station Committee and the Museum will result in an artisan designed and constructed Bus Shelter.
The Town Manager worked with us to manage a graffiti situation into an art project.
About 15 months ago, the TAC organized a charrette to provide sector wide input for the Town Plan Advisory Group. The resulting 30 pages of ideas has been honed and edited into 5 major goals which the Planning Department has incorporated into the Arts & Culture Chapter of the 2011 Town Plan.
This document, presently in draft form, can be seen as a blueprint not only for Brattleboro's future, but as a model of cooperative and intensive mining of the resources within a community.
I'd like to speak to the concept of success. I was on the NEYT board when we transitioned to the new building on Flat Street. Those times were magical and we felt a need to unpack what success in the new venue would and could look like.
It seemed to me that, when I looked around at the depth of talent, skills and resources there, that success was really a by-product rather than an aim.
The arts, as the interaction with and within the human spirit, are the process of replenishing resources, of resilience. Einstein, when stymied, mused his way to clarity in an equation by playing Bach on his violin — The process of interplay, synergy, interaction, exchanges — This is a way to self-knowledge. Our town's, our community's, our own, we come into unity.
As a culture we excel at attending to the bottom line. But I think it is important to realize that, with a single minded focus on product, on result, on who won the race, we risk losing focus on the elements of the development end — in our households, our community. We've over-focused the word economy, it is a bigger word than we are allowing. There must be room or platform for innovation, for invention, for interaction — not only in the science lab but in the R&D of the arts.
Perhaps reconsidering the term Creative Economy to pinpoint the essential truth that we are really looking to define a Causative Economy. What could be more important to a culture, a society, than to uncover the raw strengths and chemicals of our human talents.
Brattleboro is like the yogurt container — contains active cultures. These bacteria interact due to the distinct character or nature of each. The active cultures develop something else, something innovated. We need to know those distinct characters.
Sustainability might be about slowing down and identifying resources and allowing for them to interact, to think deeper, to innovate. It is our story, and it is what the artist does very well — take an idea and go with it, project a thought with the courage to embrace it. How often do we say, after some terrific challenge or crisis, I didn't know I had it in me to get through something like that. We say the same thing when we've felt we've succeeded in something truly creative or artistic — I didn't know I had it in me.
This strengthens our identity, it causes us to identify our strengths. It is shortchanging ourselves to think this is Biblical or Mythological or Philosophical, it is just initiative.
It takes all of us to identify our community, it takes the architect, the bus driver, the child's play, the interaction with the Selectboard.
The arts are a root of resilience. They are the front end of sustainability. Our question now can be, what can enable this artmaking process further, how do we unlock the doors and potentials of every member of our community. The ecosystem is also
an alchemy, it interacts, and if there is right time and space, there is song, dance and the poems of our depths. This process our context and the arts help create the context for a community's wealth.