 ..
WEBCAM: http://haverhillcommunitytv.org/
JOIN DOROTHY, THE SCARECROW, COWARDLY LION, TIN MAN and YES, TOTO TOO (thanks to sculptor Dale Rogers) for a festive evening that will include dinner, a benefit auction, Spotlight Playhouse character actors and music from “The Wizard of Oz” and the Broadway smash-hit musical, “Wicked.”
Date: Saturday, May 19th, 6:00pm
Place: Roma Restaurant, 29 Middlesex Street Haverhill MA
COST: $30 per person or $250 for Tables of 10
As of May 3rd we have an unofficial sell out so web ticket sales are closing. While we are still confirming our tables of 10 and planned attendance, we will be taking a wait list. If you would like to be added, please email teamhaverhill.essexmural@gmail.com. Thank you for your support of the Essex Street Gateway Mural!"
The doors will open at 6:00pm for social hour/silent and live auction bidding and dinner will follow at 7:30pm. This enchanting evening will be full of many wonderful and unique items such as:
- 3-night getaway to NYC for 2 to see Wicked on Broadway sponsored by Haverhill Bank
- Mojito making class with paired appetizers and chocolate fondue dessert for 10 at Evenfall
- Custom pair of pave (crystal embellished) evening shoes donated by international designer Stuart Weitzman
- A memorable family weekend on the Polar Express this winter donated by Pentucket Bank
- A Capitol Tour in DC and a lunch with Congresswoman Niki Tsongas at the Members’ Dining room for 4 people
- A Willow Springs Vineyard Tour and Tasting for 8 people
- 6 Tickets to Keon’s Wine Dinner
- A character in a future Andre Dubus novel
- A Dale Rogers original 3 ft. x 4 ft. Big Dog steel sculpture
- A private wine tasting at home including a case of white wine, a case of red wine and a bartender for up to 30 people from Butlers & Bars
- A foursome of golf including two carts for 18 holes at Bradford Country Club
- A museum quality print of the mural created by Image Tech
- 2 Farm to Table Cooking Classes at Mann’s Orchard
And much more!
Tickets may also be purchased by mailing checks to Tim Jordan c/o ESGM 167 Kingsbury Ave Bradford, MA 01835. Checks should be made payable to “GHCC CAEF”. Don’t forget your contact information so we can confirm receipt!
For Questions or to Donate items for the Auction, please contact: teamhaverhill.essexmural@gmail.com
Team Haverhill’s Fiscal Agent is the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Community Arts Educational Foundation (GHCC CAEF) which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The Tax ID/EIN is 22-2539427.
Sponsors and Partners
The Essex Street Gateway Mural project is sponsored by “Legend” sponsor, NMTW Credit Union.
Major “Oscar” sponsors include Covanta Energy, Sherwin Williams, Keon’s Bistro 105 and Keon’s at the Black Swan, Haverhill Bank, Pentucket Bank and the Merrimack Valley Hospital. Also, grants were made by the Haverhill Cultural Council and the Greater Haverhill Foundation.
The Eagle Tribune is the official media sponsor.
Team Haverhill thanks project partners include City of Haverhill and the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce.
Follow us on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Essex-Street-Gateway-Mural/200731113305123
Learn more about the Artists
Click here for information about Meg, James, the team and their legendary work.
In the News
Haverhill's newest and largest scale public artwork--The Essex Street Gateway Community Mural on the wall of 25 Essex Street--is underway with the help of nationally-known muralists Meg Saligman and James Shuster, with lively involvement from our local community. For the complete story of the mural, click here. READ MORE
http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x467323510/Auction-to-help-raise-100-000-for-downtown-mural
http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x1983886682/Downtown-building-becomes-a-wall-of-canvas
http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x1293915582/Team-Haverhill-to-host-receptions-with-mural-artist/print
http://www.hgazette.com/local/x2073121685/Massive-Mayer-mural-coming-as-part-of-Essex-Street-Gateway-project
http://www.hgazette.com/arts/x415200575/Crowd-packs-citys-Oscar-Night/print
http://www.hgazette.com/local/x603691492/Whom-would-you-nominate-for-the-Essex-Street-mural
http://www.eagletribune.com/haverhill/x967742253/Raffle-winner-chooses-grandmother-for-downtown-mural
http://www.northshorerealtors.com/government_affairs/blog/338-haverhill_essex_street_mural
http://www.hgazette.com/local/x1760884939/Celebrity-mural-to-emerge-in-spring
http://nshoremag.com/stuart-weitzman-haverhill/
http://nshoremag.com/haverhill-native-stuart-weitzman/
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmP9q-n5NyU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bP-V-l9RVY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tciaCQzcLNE
The Story of the Essex Street Gateway Community Mural: “Hues of the Heart”
Team Haverhill’s Involvement in Public Art
From the time Team Haverhill was founded in 2005, public art has been one of its most enduring and popular initiatives. To date, twenty-five murals—of increasing size and complexity—have been commissioned and installed by Team Haverhill with broad community support and sponsorship. Several were created in collaboration with students at the Discovery Club after-school programs, while the large banner-mural on Wingate Street incorporated the creative work of 32 Haverhill community groups of all ages. Beyond murals, Team Haverhill sponsored the 2009 “Soles of Haverhill Shoe-la-bration” (producing 14 colorful, giant shoe sculptures displayed around the city) and the installation in 2010 of a contemporary sculpture called “The River Path” by nationally-known Haverhill artist Dale Rogers.
How the Essex Street Mural Project Began
In 2010, Team Haverhill began planning for a new mural that would dwarf even the largest of its previous projects. Now known as the Essex Street Gateway Community Mural, this project was inspired by an eyesore: a four-story expanse of wall at 25 Essex Street, still scarred from the demolition of the adjoining building years ago. Recent revitalization initiatives—including the opening of new residential units in the Cordovan, Haverhill Lofts, Hamel Mill Lofts and Hayes Building properties, construction of the new downtown parking garage, and intensive current focus on Washington and Wingate Street as our Restaurant and Arts district—seemed to demand that the wall at 25 Essex Street reflect the “new face” of Haverhill. From a modest seed grant, a monumental project has taken root in the imagination of our city, and will—in the first half of 2012—become a stunning new Haverhill landmark.
Evolution of the Mural Concept
The early inspiration for a mural theme was the site itself. Just down the street from the wall, movie mogul Louis B. Mayer had opened his very first movie theater, called the Orpheum, in 1907; hence, this project was initially dubbed “the Mayer mural.” But when renowned muralist Meg Saligman of MLS Studios got involved, the concept broadened dramatically and the vision for a “community” mural took on a life of its own. The whole community would be represented by a host of different figures reflecting Haverhill’s past, present and future, and—just as significantly—the community would be involved in the further development of the concept, as well as in the actual painting of the mural.
“Hues of the Heart”: The Essex Gateway Community Mural
In January of 2011, the preliminary design of the mural was unveiled to the public by MLS artist James Shuster at Team Haverhill’s annual “Possible Dreams” community event. Drawing from a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, the title “Hues of the Heart” had been selected to highlight the mural’s intent to both manifest and nourish the “heart and soul” of the city. The overall design is a cut-away side view of a movie theater, presented as we imagine the Orpheum might have appeared in its heyday. The theater is full of people, objects, and textures—and even one fish!—drawn from Haverhill’s past and present, but reassembled in a rich and inventive design that calls to mind the most opulent and symbolic of Renaissance paintings.
Core Themes of the Mural
Themes for this mural emerged from community interviews and conversations, as well as from archival research. The complex image reflects the city’s timeless beauty, its heritage and history, and its social and physical infrastructure. Combining memory and imagination, this artwork illuminates rich connections between Haverhill’s past, present and future. Disparate visual elements find their unity in community-identified themes of longevity and resilience, inventiveness and adaptation, cultural diversity and ever-emerging vision. The mural is intended to both celebrate and further strengthen Haverhill’s distinctive “sense of place.”
Images in the Mural
The initial inspiration for this artwork—the figure of Louis B. Mayer—peers out at the viewer from the middle of the theater. He is surrounded by dozens of figures and symbols of Haverhill’s past and present. These include:
- Passaconaway, a great chief of the Pennacooks, said to have magical powers to make rocks move, trees dance and water burn
- The 18th century ship Ulysses, built in Haverhill, saved from shipwreck by the crew’s endurance and ingenuity
- John Quincy Adams, presenter to Congress of Haverhill’s Abolitionist Petition
- Entrepreneurs Rowland Macy, Louis Hamel, and Stuart Weitzman
- Performers Cora Chase, Tom Bergeron and Rob Zombie
- Economist Stuart Chase, key advisor to FDR and source of the term “New Deal”
- Beloved teacher Frances Cole Lee, along with Haverhill’s first African-American fire-fighter, Sidney Mason
- Bob Montana, creator of Archie comics
- Sports figures Gene Goodreault, Mike Ryan and Carlos Peña
- Acclaimed writers Andre Dubus II and Andre Dubus III
- “Unsung” contributors to the heart and soul of our city, including Leota C. Bailey, Kalister Green-Byrd, and Sidney Mason
- “Haverhill’s Oldest Resident,” the endangered Shortnose Sturgeon that returns here each spring to spawn
- And one of Haverhill’s youngest residents, stepping into the picture as a symbol of the city’s future.
A full and annotated legend for the mural design will be published at the time of the mural’s dedication. This document will serve as an artistic, historical and educational guide for many decades to come.
Methods Employed by MLS Studios
Meg Saligman, principal artist at Philadelphia’s MLS Studios, has been a multi-faceted innovator for decades in mural techniques and materials; in community-based design and production; and in the use of mural art as a medium for community development and revitalization. The Studio is particularly known for applying panels of a special fabric to the prepared wall before completing the image with direct painting. In “Hues of the Heart,” some of the panels have been pre-painted, either at the studio or by local community members here in Haverhill. Besides MLS Studio’s many installations in Philadelphia, their monumental community artworks are found all over the country, including a mural in Omaha, Nebraska, that stands eight stories tall and runs more than a football field in length. In Haverhill, Saligman and Shuster from MLS have been joined by many local professional artists and innumerable members of the Haverhill community who have contributed their creativity to the design and painting phases of the work.
Community Involvement
By the time the mural is completed, MLS Studios will have conducted approximately twenty “community paint sessions” including a dozen in schools and youth facilities, plus sessions for the business community, senior citizens, residents of apartments overlooking the mural, and the general public, in many different venues. Because of the depth of community involvement in both the design and painting of the mural, as well as through financial sponsorships and logistical support from many sources, we can call this with pride the Essex Street Gateway Community Mural, “Hues of the Heart.”
|
