Collaborative Art Projects provide local residents with an active role in designing graphic interpretations; whether it is defining their region's distinct historic character or identifying more contemporary issues.
Greenfield Baseball Park
Title: Baseball Mosaic Site:Porters Corners Town Park, Greenfield Year: 1997 Scale: 6x8 Feet Artist: Ceres Zabel Participants: Odyssey Students Sponsors: SPAF 1997 Project Grant
Greenfield Baseball Park exhibits a tile mosaic which depicts a theme well understood by the hundreds of townsfolk who gather here to watch their children play baseball. In our community baseball and other sports are a recognized and accepted activity for child participation.
Why not the visual arts? Boys and girls, ages 8-14, spent many hours snipping and sorting thousands of tiles preparing for the mosaic. They exhibited uncommon patience and determination noteworthy for today's youth often accused as the generation of instant gratification. By aligning this art project with a beloved sport, Odyssey school opened a venue encouraging all students to participate and feel comfortable being part of an artistic endeavor.
High Rock Springs
Title: Past, Present and Future Site: Phila St. Saratoga Springs Year:1997 Scale: 25x20 Feet Artist:Ceres Zabel Participants:Odyssey Students, and Select Students from Saratoga Mentoring Program Sponsors: Catholic Charities, and OSFA
Historic Phila Street, in the heart of downtown Saratoga, is adorned by a painted mural titled, Past, Present and Future which depicts the history surrounding the ever constant flow of water from a famous area spring.
Author and illustrator John Evans showed the students how to paint the fine details of the mural. Exposing the public to the history of an area is one of many roles the arts play in our lives.
High Rock Spring...
"Its history, running through several centuries, is replete with stirring events; surrounded by mythical legends, garlanded with oriental metaphors, and embellished with all the high-wrought fiction so characteristic of the Six Nations. It tells of battles fought and won and lost. It tells of a "proud and powerful republic;" its commencement, its growth, its advantages, and its strength. It tells of levees, held annually around the pool of "sweet waters" to please the Great Spirit."
It also tells of its healing powers: "When the water is taken in the morning, fasting, it removes without debility, the remnants of the previous day's food, and leaves the organs in a condition to act upon the next portion of ingesta which may be presented to them."
From the history of High Rock Congress Spring, by an old resident physician, Dr. R.L. Allen
Scotia
Site: Scotia-Glenville Children’s Museum, Route 50 Scotia Year:2004 Artist: Ceres Zabel and Colin Evans Sponsors:Scotia-Glenville Museum, NYSCA, and Albany-Schenectady League of Arts
Greenfield Town Park Site: Greenfield Town Park, Middle Grove Year:2006 Artist: Ceres Zabel Sponsors:SPAF 2006 Project Grant, and Odyssey Students
High Rock Springs