When JumpstART returns to downtown Riverhead this summer, the innovative public art project will bring new murals, a community-created mosaic walkway at the community garden, an interactive “picnic” for children on an “unchartered planet,” video profiles of local characters, poetry, music and a variety of of visual art installations.
JumpstART will take place on Friday, Aug. 7. The “creative placemaking” event presented by East End Arts made its debut in 2014, drawing hundreds to Main Street and the riverfront area for a celebration of public art. It was very well received and last year’s JumpstART artists are returning to mentor this year’s crop, East End Arts executive director Pat Snyder told the Riverhead Town Board at Thursday’s work session.
Snyder and the artists chosen to participate in JumpstART 2015 attended the board meeting to give town officials a taste of what this year’s event has in store. Five different artists presented their proposals.
The JumpstART project is actually dedicated to the business of art, Snyder said. It aims to give artists the tools and skills they need to take advantage of available creative opportunities, she said. Part of the curriculum is learning how to write, publicly present and seek funding for a proposal. The participating artists are also responsible for finding sites for their installations and securing permission to use them.
Artist Samantah Neukirch made her JumpstART pitch to the town board on June 11: a colorful aquatic-themed multimedia mural for the wall of the West Main Street comfort station facing the children’s playground.
Mosaic artist Linda Purrazzella pitched a mosaic walkway leading to the West Main Street entrance of the River and Roots Community Garden next door to the playground.
“People will participate in making it, beginning the night of the event,” Purrazzella told the board. Creating a community mosaic installation is “a very powerful experience,” she said.
Videographer Sue Levy plans to create video profiles of various people in the Riverhead community. She’s met with potential subjects and winnowed a list that includes: orchid grower Bill Bianchi; marina operator Bryan DeLuca talking about living on a houseboat; Steve Siegelwaks of the Green Earth Natural Foods Market; and Siris Barrios of Riverside Rediscovered, among others. Her videos, compiled as “Riverhead Revealed” will be screened in the Riverside Rediscovered office on Peconic Avenue on the night of JumpstART.
Sculptor Andrea Manning and theater artist Becca Seibert will transform the former reptile store on East Main Street into “a fictional alien planet” in their interactive installation for kids called “Space Picnic.”
“It’s performance art for young audiences,” Seibert explained. “We will guide audiences on a picnic on the fictional planet and ask them to find in the environment there, the sources of the ingredients of the picnic.”
Abstract photographer Sarah Prescott will install an exhibit of her work “Get Paused” on the East End Arts grounds.
“‘Get Paused’ is my survival story,” Prescott told the board, explaining that it’s her story, in photographs and words, of surviving a brain tumor and stroke. The series depicts what she was going through emotionally and how it affected her work — and vice versa.
Illustrator Ann Drager and writer/poet Maggie Bloomfield have teamed up on “Words and Birds,” which they described as a family-friendly interactive project intended to promote poetry and creativity “as a pathway to a more empathic and successful community.” Drager will create “cartoon birds” paper sculptures that are either free-standing or suspended in air and inscribed with poetry by Bloomfield. Poetry-bearing paper birds will be distributed to the public, along with blank birds ready to be colored and inscribed with unique messages.
Other JumpstART projects that were not formally presented to the board last week include: a plexiglass panel circular mural depicting “the hidden world of the river, bay and wetlands; and “Improvisation Station,” an area framed by an installation of life-sized, vibrantly colored paper mache arches, within which members of the community — aided by artist-facilitators — will be invited to sing, dance, recite poetry or perform.
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