Public Art Installations

The arts council ran competitions for local, regional and international artists to produce the following public art for Northampton community.
Hidden Value -- Public Art Installation in Pulaski Park by artist Lara Lepionka
July through October 2006

This project is funded by the Northampton Arts Council with additional grants from the Xeric Foundation, Florence Savings Bank and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.; and support from Smith College and Stanley Rosko of Purchasing, City of Northampton and Rich Parasiliti, Jr. of the DPW, the Hotel Northampton

Special thanks to Joseph Krupczynski and the Public Art Committee of the Northampton Arts Council, Linda Muehlig, Betsy Siersma, Will K. Wilkins, Pam Barnes.
Hidden Value examines the premise that everyday people make vital, under-recognized contributions to their communities through their work and civic life. In many instances, people may not have the opportunity to consider the valuable contributions they are making as they go about their daily lives, and in some cases their contributions may not be acknowledged or valued by the greater society. They routinely impact others in quiet, unheralded ways that go far beyond the usual measures of success in our society. How do we measure this kind of impact? How do we communicate this kind of worth? What constitutes achievement and success at work? Where does society attribute value?

I investigated these questions by interviewing five Northampton citizens in diverse occupations and other people affected by their work. I also transformed standard quantitative measurement tools to assess their achievements and successes in new ways. I then chose everyday objects associated with the five occupations and transferred the texts of the interviews and research results to those objects. By altering the familiarity of the everyday objects to reveal people's voices and by arranging them in a public space, the hidden value of the their work is revealed and communicated to themselves and others. We glimpse a community's social capital through the impacts of particular individuals, the real meaning of their work exposed within a new context. We also suddenly recognize that the subtle things people do in their work lives make a valuable contribution to the whole and are the substance of our daily lives.

The final installations grew out of the uniqueness of the participants and their work situations. Nevertheless, the participants are meant to represent all of us and our capacity to contribute to the life of our community. I wish to express special thanks to Rich Cooper, Danny Crawford, Ina Kapitan, Barbara Kellum, and an anonymous participant for making Hidden Value possible. I also would like to thank others I interviewed in the community, including those who are not represented in the final work.

--Lara Lepionka

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2006
For more information: Diane Porcella 413 587 1247 arts@city.northampton.ma.us

Hidden Value -- Public Art Installation in Pulaski Park by artist Lara Lepionka

Public art takes many forms. Perhaps we are most familiar with a sculpture of a historic figure, a granite monument to a specific event or a painted mural adorning an unconsidered wall. While such traditional public art has and will continue to play a role in Northampton, Hidden Value, a temporary public art installation by Lara Lepionka in Northampton’s Pulaski Park, works towards more complex aesthetic and social goals.

Hidden Value will be installed by Lepionka in 5 locations within Pulaski Park on Monday July 10 and remain there through October 2006. Special events include a Tour of Work, Artist Talk, and Reception on August 11, 2006/ 5:30-7:00 PM and Tours of Work with Arts Council Members September 8 and October 13, 2006 from 5:30-6:00 PM. All events will take place in Pulaski Park in conjunction with Northampton’s Arts Night Out. (northamptonuncommon.com)

This artistic work emerged from a call for proposals by artists interested in creating a site-specific temporary art installation that would expand public awareness of, and involvement in, contemporary art in Northampton. Hidden Value was selected from a group of over 30 proposals from local, national and international artists because it embodied the mission of this project to inspire ideas and designs that expand conventional notions of people, place and the art-making process. Lepionka lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts with her family.

In Hidden Value, Lepionka examines the premise that everyday people make vital, under-recognized contributions to their communities through their work and civic life. In many instances, people may not have the opportunity to consider the valuable contributions they are making as they go about their daily lives, and in some cases their contributions may not be acknowledged or valued by the greater society. They routinely impact others in quiet, unheralded ways that go far beyond the usual measures of success in our society. How do we measure this kind of impact? How do we communicate this kind of worth? What constitutes achievement and success at work? Where does society attribute value? Lepionka investigated these questions by interviewing five Northampton citizens in diverse occupations and other people affected by their work. The final installations grew out of the uniqueness of the participants and their work situations. Nevertheless, the participants are meant to represent all of us and our capacity to contribute to the life of our community

This project is funded by the Northampton Arts Council with additional support from the Xeric Foundation, Florence Savings Bank, Smith College and Stanley Rosko from Purchasing, City of Northampton and Rich Parasiliti, Jr. of the DPW the Hotel Northampton and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. For more information: northamptonartscouncil.org.
The Arts Kiosk Pavillion by sculptor Gene Montez Flores

Gene Flores designed and built both an arts and information kiosk and a bench for the new mini-plaza on a portion of land in front of First Churches and the old Fleet Bank. Both pieces are fabricated from stainless steel, with a satin hand-polished finish.

Originally from California, Gene Flores lived and worked in New York City for a number of years before moving eight years ago to Plainfield, MA, where he and his wife live and where he maintains his studio. His sculptures have been exhibited widely throughout the United States as well as in Sweden, Germany and Poland. Most recently he has been working on an installation, the "Love's Seat Project", for Battery Park in New York City. Also last year, his work, "Pavillon Papillon" (Butterfly Pavillion), was chosen for inclusion in the Socrates Sculpture Park Tenth Anniversary Exhibition in Queens, NY.
What do Teenagers want to look at?

The question: "What do teenagers want to look at?"
The answer: "Each other."
The answer inspired artist Lynn Peterfreund's design, which won a competition to create a public art work for the newly renovated cafetorium at the John F. Kennedy Middle School. Her design is three rows of a dozen 30-square inch brightly painted plywood panels - a row of teenage heads, a row of teenage torsos, and a row of teenage legs and feet. All the squares in each row are interchangeable, making it possible to mix and match to create hundreds of variations.

Lynn Peterfreund, from Leverett, MA, is a painter and videographer as well as a seasoned muralist, who has painted wall surfaces in bookstores, at the Holyoke Children's Museum and even in a drycleaners in Springfield.
Between Land and Sea

Ceramicist Patricia Fay was chosen from a field of twelve other artists to create a 150 square foot mural, "Between Land and Sea", for the end wall of the natatorium at the newly built John F. Kennedy Middle School. Ms. Fay's work is made of hand-
painted bisque tiles representing a tropical rainforest at either end of the "sea", a glimmering ocean made of 1-inch square blue mosaic tiles, resting on the "land" of earth-colored quarry tiles. Set within the "ocean" are hand-painted tiles of species chosen to suggest the complex links between land and sea: the salmon drawn to inland spawning grounds, the air-breathing dolphin, a marine iguana and the non-swimming calico, along with a school of multi-shaped and multi-colored fish.

Fay, an artist from Hadley, MA, with an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, has been living and working in St. Lucia in the West Indies on a Fulbright award for the past three years. She is now the Chair of the Art Department at the Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, where she teaches ceramics and design. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the U.S.