(July 27, 2017) The Berlin Arts and Entertainment Committee has finalized plans for the third panel of a public art mural and for the community building it hopes it fosters.
The committee will host an open paint session with muralist John Donato on Saturday, Aug. 5 from 1-4 p.m. during the Berlin Peach Festival at the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum.
The panel is expected to be finished during an open paint and community potluck on Saturday, Sept. 16 from 4-7 p.m. at the Germantown School Community Heritage Center. Guests are encouraged to bring picnic blankets, chairs, and a dish to share. Musician/singer Bryan Russo will collaborate with local church choirs to perform the gospel songs of Charles Albert Tindley.
Robin Tomaselli from Berlin Arts and Entertainment recently met with the committee overseeing the Germantown School Community Heritage Center project, to discuss a collaborative event.
Last Wednesday, Tomaselli and Donato met in Germantown again with Barbara Purnell, Gabe Purnell, Wilbert “Tom” Pitts and Karen Prengaman.
Tomaselli spoke highly of Donato.
“He is a genius. His gift is collaborating with people of all talent and lack of talent, and using art to bridge gaps not only in community building, but particularly with youth,” she said. “His murals … tell a story. To me, it’s so much bigger than a piece of artwork.”
The first two panels of the mural hang on the north-facing wall of the Berlin Visitor’s Center on 14 South Main Street. Students from Buckingham Elementary School worked on the first panel and children involved in Worcester Youth and Family Counseling Services worked on the second.
Tomaselli said many of those children stop to look at the mural, take pictures with their parents or show off their handiwork to friends.
“For the people that have worked on it so far, it does create this level of ownership of something really positive in their community,” she said. “In thinking about working on the third phase … we really wanted to something that incorporated that side of town, and this side of town.
“It makes sense to use to start it over at the Peach Festival with a completely free community paint,” Tomaselli continued. “And then to dismantle those panels and have them be completed at … a completely free community potluck. The desire is to share a meal together and complete the mural together.”
She added the collaboration of Russo and the church choirs, singing the songs of Tindley, was another convergence of two sides of Berlin.
During the remainder of the meeting, Purnell and others talked about their recollections of the school, as Donato sketched ideas for panel three.
The Germantown School, built around 1922, was one of several community schools that served black children during segregation. There were similar schools on Flower Street in Berlin, and in Snow Hill and Sinepuxent.
Those in the room talked about the long walks to and from school carrying loads of books, and what the landscape looked like when it was in service. Worcester County was much more rural, and the parents of the school children worked on farms, were laborers, and many were teachers.
“With the murals the key things [are] … what’s the story we’re telling, what are the details, it’s gotta look good, and people actually have to paint it,” Donato said. “What I’m getting is the school itself is built on this foundation of all these people and their stories.”
“I think now, more than ever, kids need to understand how hard work and honor and leadership [mattered],” Tomaselli said. “What matters is your work ethic and your moral fabric. All of those are good things that kids, in general, aren’t getting.
“This can tell a little bit of the story,” she added.
The committee will host an open paint session with muralist John Donato on Saturday, Aug. 5 from 1-4 p.m. during the Berlin Peach Festival at the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum.
The panel is expected to be finished during an open paint and community potluck on Saturday, Sept. 16 from 4-7 p.m. at the Germantown School Community Heritage Center. Guests are encouraged to bring picnic blankets, chairs, and a dish to share. Musician/singer Bryan Russo will collaborate with local church choirs to perform the gospel songs of Charles Albert Tindley.
Robin Tomaselli from Berlin Arts and Entertainment recently met with the committee overseeing the Germantown School Community Heritage Center project, to discuss a collaborative event.
Last Wednesday, Tomaselli and Donato met in Germantown again with Barbara Purnell, Gabe Purnell, Wilbert “Tom” Pitts and Karen Prengaman.
Tomaselli spoke highly of Donato.
“He is a genius. His gift is collaborating with people of all talent and lack of talent, and using art to bridge gaps not only in community building, but particularly with youth,” she said. “His murals … tell a story. To me, it’s so much bigger than a piece of artwork.”
The first two panels of the mural hang on the north-facing wall of the Berlin Visitor’s Center on 14 South Main Street. Students from Buckingham Elementary School worked on the first panel and children involved in Worcester Youth and Family Counseling Services worked on the second.
Tomaselli said many of those children stop to look at the mural, take pictures with their parents or show off their handiwork to friends.
“For the people that have worked on it so far, it does create this level of ownership of something really positive in their community,” she said. “In thinking about working on the third phase … we really wanted to something that incorporated that side of town, and this side of town.
“It makes sense to use to start it over at the Peach Festival with a completely free community paint,” Tomaselli continued. “And then to dismantle those panels and have them be completed at … a completely free community potluck. The desire is to share a meal together and complete the mural together.”
She added the collaboration of Russo and the church choirs, singing the songs of Tindley, was another convergence of two sides of Berlin.
During the remainder of the meeting, Purnell and others talked about their recollections of the school, as Donato sketched ideas for panel three.
The Germantown School, built around 1922, was one of several community schools that served black children during segregation. There were similar schools on Flower Street in Berlin, and in Snow Hill and Sinepuxent.
Those in the room talked about the long walks to and from school carrying loads of books, and what the landscape looked like when it was in service. Worcester County was much more rural, and the parents of the school children worked on farms, were laborers, and many were teachers.
“With the murals the key things [are] … what’s the story we’re telling, what are the details, it’s gotta look good, and people actually have to paint it,” Donato said. “What I’m getting is the school itself is built on this foundation of all these people and their stories.”
“I think now, more than ever, kids need to understand how hard work and honor and leadership [mattered],” Tomaselli said. “What matters is your work ethic and your moral fabric. All of those are good things that kids, in general, aren’t getting.
“This can tell a little bit of the story,” she added.