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Ellen's Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
March 2023

I am halfway through assembling more than 10,000 watches as we head into March. I can see the finish before we get to spring. As I continue to lay them out, my mind wanders. There are so many stories here—these watch donations span decades. Here is an unorthodox medium that is turning into an amazing art assembly, and a great symbol of collaboration. Once we get this installed, the overall effect is going to be something very special.

Also special is our new series of music events in the mural building—and I am psyched. Mark Saturday, April 1 on your calendar. You do not want to miss this. I have been listening to the KC Sisters as I work in the studio and it brings back memories of growing up and singing with my sisters, Carroll, our alto, and Judy and I, who were first and second sopranos. How much fun it was as siblings to create harmony together, and the KC sisters take this to a whole new level. Add one of our favorite female vocalists, Theresa Thomason, singing Motown and gospel and, together, these women are going to bring down the house.

That’s a promise. Reserve your tickets now.

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Moving In: Installation

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Moving In: Installation
February 20, 2023

Just a few hundred watches heading over to the mill today. No need for straps—this is, no doubt, our heaviest collaborative project. And it's a fraction of the watches to come.

In 2010, AMP partnered with the General Federation of Women's Clubs. GFWC members from across the country donated over 10,000 watches to represent all the time volunteers spend helping others. Ellen is encasing the watches in resin to form a huge watch link running through the ramp gallery.

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Moving In: Installation

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Moving In: Installation
February 3, 2023

Ellen's winter hibernation is over and Justin has moved the circular saw into the back ramp for some serious install work. Together they will pick up where they left off last fall, filling the ‘backstage’ gallery with artwork. Thousands of pieces are waiting to go up, created by all the kids on our AMP collaborative projects across the country.

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Ellen's Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
February 2023

In my world, February is the last grey, frigid month of winter. Valentine’s Day is two weeks away and I am getting psyched for all the colorful and exciting things to come: the music, the special events, the next steps on the back ramp installing more impossible sections. And, after spending weeks with a glue gun, it’s exciting to think of how 3,000 tongue depressors will look once they are installed overhead.

There is nothing I love more than starting a day with ideas that will take me somewhere in the hours ahead, but I have yet to understand how it will all end. Some of the most exciting things happen when you don’t know, at the offset, the exact conclusion.

Welcome to 2023. How cool will it be!?!

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AMPed UP

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AMPed UP
January 23, 2023

We’re so excited! The History Channel/A&E Network recently featured the American Mural Project on HISTORYTalks, a special event highlighting trailblazers, global leaders, and change makers. Senator Chris Murphy recommended AMP for this honor. The film crew who visited AMP approached a tough assignment of telling our 22-year story in three minutes, and they did it with incredible originality and talent. And, no surprise, Senator Murphy’s introduction makes the piece. You will love this. Please share with friends.

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Ellen's Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
January 2023

2022 will go down as a memorable AMP year in every respect for all of us on staff, all our volunteers, and all our kids in every program. From the moment we received our certificate of occupancy for all three levels of the main building in June, there has not been a dull moment in the tremendous space. We have gone way over our visitor projections for the first six months we have been open on the weekends, and we had full sessions for all our programs this summer. We continue to welcome all the kids in our CHAMPS after-school programs during the school year.  

Since we are always looking ahead at possibilities, we have spent the last two months of 2022 planning for new events in 2023. Since we are sitting on an acoustical wonder—the mural building—our first step has been to plan with our music talent team some exciting weekend concerts. From our first big event in 2020 with Paul Winter, Theresa Thomason, and Joel Martin to last fall’s gala with Gabriel Löfvall, Sandra Boynton, and Chorus Angelicus, we have been blown away by the sound of music in the mural building. Since standing ovations are a given at the end of these events, it’s a no-brainer to schedule more of this at AMP. And there is no limit—Gospel, Motown, jazz, classical, and rock—we are planning for all of it. Keep checking on our site and social media for schedules of upcoming concert dates. We want to pack the place. We are also planning special film screenings and documentaries with guest speakers, many of them subjects in the mural, as well as Thursday night jam sessions. And more, more, more programs for kids. 

None of this could be happening if it were not for your continued AMAZING support—not just for everything we do but for everything we look ahead to do in the future.

I see 2023 as breaking all kinds of attendance records at AMP and I am not crazy. I know you are all with us and want more activities at AMP as much as we do.

The possibilities are endless and impossible is nothing!!!

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
December 2022

I am starting to feel the holidays in the air as I work to finish assembling a couple projects for the Ramp Gallery that have been in process for the past eight weeks.

There are times when I pull out some of the collaborative project pieces that have been stored away for ten or more years and I just sigh. What was I thinking when I asked kids at HealthCorps fairs to paint these small tongue depressors, all in the spirit of emphasizing healthy diet and exercise in their lives? Hot gluing thousands of these can get repetitive, but then I run into a bunch that are tiny masterpieces. I marvel at the high level of creativity reached by so many of these kids, making full-blown paintings on a ½” x 6” piece of balsa wood. And now these kids are in their teens or 20s and probably doing amazing things in their young adult lives to benefit others. I hope they have not lost their exuberance and zest for life. This is a time for rebuilding and we need all that energy.

It reminds me that there are many things that are so positive and hopeful. They are all around us if we just take the time to look.

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
November 2022

I decided last month that it was time to pull out all the giant mailing crates of watches donated by women across the country, who are members of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC). This project pays tribute to the work these women do as volunteers in hospitals, community gardens, and fundraising events in their communities, all to help others in need. When we started collecting watches many years ago, I pictured several hundred watches all pulled together—a terrific visual statement about the hours these women spend helping others. I felt I had a handle on the assembly part of the project. But these women were not kidding around. I am now looking at what appears to be more like 10,000 watches. No matter the method, I know there are many hours ahead to bring all of these together into one giant assembly.

My other project of the month has involved a similar amassing of small objects—in this case tongue depressors painted by kids at health fairs in California, Arizona, and six states in the Midwest and New England. I loved the metaphor for better health and fitness, proper exercise and diet. What blew me away was the artwork these kids managed to create on a piece of wood slightly larger than a popsicle stick. Now it’s in my court—how to bring all of these together and display them in the Ramp Gallery in a way that gives justice to their efforts. 

In both of these projects, there is obviously a built-in tedious component. But there is also a big challenge. In the final execution, both pieces need to properly give credit to thousands of people: kids who are thinking about living healthier lives and are acting on it, and the GFWC women who are thinking about helping others and are spending hours of their own time doing it.

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Art at Work: Education

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Art at Work: Education
October 30, 2022

Last week we welcomed sixth-grade students from Canton Intermediate School, who created a "Big Idea" architectural project—their personal dream of work. They also collaborated outside to design pieces they would like to see in our kid-designed and -built nature playground, thinking about what they would need to build it, who it would impact, who they'd need to help, and how they'd get started.

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