ArtCentral: Celebrating our Community with Art
By Elizabeth Freer
Matthews Opera House, ArtCentral Manager
Have you noticed some of the cool things happening in town? ArtCentral has a couple of projects that are underway and it has been great to see the community get engaged, to hear the positive feedback, and to see Spearfish get excited about art in our community.
If you haven’t seen the painted crosswalks yet, ArtCentral recently painted artistic designs on the crosswalks at Grant and Canyon Streets. For three days, community volunteers and members of the ArtCentral committee worked to install semi-permanent art on the pavement. The community support for the project has been outstanding. Watch the Matthews Opera House Facebook page for updates on the next crosswalk painting project.
ArtCentral is also working on our Linking Fences project. The goal of Linking Fences is to engage the community in a creative project that not only adds visual interest to our town, but also uses the chain link fences that typically divide us to forge new connections. Linking Fences offers an opportunity for everyone to express their creativity and make new connections.
Several Linking Fences projects were completed earlier this spring by our students. Have you noticed the painted CDs hanging on the fence at the United Methodist Church, the school of fish at Creekside Elementary, the rainbow plastic tops at West Elementary, or the red, yellow and blue woven fence across from the Grace Balloch Memorial Library?
Three community artists were selected this spring through a competition to install large Linking Fences projects on City of Spearfish fences. Last week, artist Jo Powell installed “Jazz: Homage to Matisse” in Spearfish City Park on the tennis court fence. The large lexan figures transform the fence and their shadows dance through the park throughout the day.
A project by Cary Thrall titled “Community Unity, Mitakuye Oyasin: We Are All Related” has been underway for a few weeks already. She has been working with the Northern Hills Training Center, Spearfish Recreation summer program, and Kid Konnection preschool to prepare her materials, and providing oral history lessons on Mato Paha (Bear Butte) and Mato Tipila (Devil’s Tower). She will start installing her project consisting of four large panels on the fence at the Spearfish Recreation and Aquatics Center this week.
Artist Charla Stickland is working on her piece titled “Linking the Past to the Present to the Future” which will be installed on the basketball court fence near State and Elgin Streets. This project uses prefabricated colorful fence cups and is about storytelling of the past and how we listen to find our future.
ArtCentral hopes that many in the Spearfish community will take part in making their own fence art at home or work. Creative and colorful expressions are encouraged. Visit www.MatthewsOpera.com/community-lf/ for more information on how to participate. Take pictures of decorated fences around Spearfish this summer – one you’ve built or one you enjoy seeing – and share on social media, and use #LinkingFences hashtag. Register your fence project by sending us an email (address below).
Lead by Elizabeth Freer, ArtCentral manager at The Matthews, the project brings together a committee of advocates, artists, and residents working together over two years to create a new model for arts planning and outreach, focusing on the themes of belonging, inclusion, equity, rural connectedness, cultivating creativity, imagining space, and the arts as a community development catalyst.
“I am excited for this opportunity to work in Spearfish with The Matthews on this innovative and important project to advance the arts in our community,” stated Freer. “I encourage local residents who are interested in participating in this process to apply to be a part of the committee.”