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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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In the Studio

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In the Studio
October 15, 2022

Ellen's latest project—and a super tedious one at that! She's assembling thousands of tongue depressors to create a giant sculpture that will be installed in the Ramp Gallery. You read that right! More than 4,000 tongue depressors have been painted and decorated to date, done in collaboration with HealthCorps, an organization working to eliminate health inequity and improve lives by educating and empowering teens.

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
October 2022

Last month was packed with preparation for our Gala as well as a visit from Brenda Eheart, Carolyn Casteel, and Jeanette Laws, my friends from Hope Meadows, a very special foster-care community in Rantoul, Illinois, where we did an AMP collaborative project in 2005. At Hope, everyone in the community spent four days running around making wax rubbings of everything significant to them—from license plates and brooms to basketball shoes and flip flops. All of these impressions will be part of the Illinois collaborative project in the Ramp Gallery exhibit to open next year. 

It would be an understatement to say that the performance we heard at the Gala was memorable. The combined artistic talents of all the musicians, soloists, and chorus resulted in a perfect AMP collaboration. It was a thrill to be in the space and hear the magic happen, from the first trumpet call to the last notes of Sandy Boynton’s original composition, Amplify. 

Both of these big moments in September reminded me of the excitement we all get when we are doing something special together in perfect harmony.

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Building Up and Raising Funds

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Building Up and Raising Funds
September 19, 2022

Saturday was the perfect day for our annual Art of Work Gala! Guests were absolutely blown away by the music and the acoustics in the mural building. Delicious food and drinks, amazing friends and supporters. And we're so grateful to be experiencing the mural from all three levels. If you missed it this year, we hope you can join us next September!

See photos here.

Many thanks to the generous support from our Gala sponsors: Scope Construction Company, Kaman Corporation, Northwest Community Bank, Hartford HealthCare, and R&M Insulation, with additional support from Elyse Harney Real Estate.

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
September 2022

All summer long there has been nonstop action at AMP. All the kids’ programs came to an end in the first weeks of August, which usually silences the place. This year, we are welcoming visitors Friday–Sunday every weekend, and the general hum and laughter continues. On the few days I have been in the mural building during visiting hours, I have had an absolute blast meeting adults and kids, answering their questions, and asking them for their thoughts on ways to make the experience more fun.

Abigail and Ben, our visitor services staff, together with our amazing volunteers, have been phenomenal. They are all over the place, up and down the three levels assisting visitors. They seem to know far more about the mural than I do.

And now, here comes the Art of Work Gala on Saturday, September 17. I was lucky enough to attend many of the rehearsals, and hearing Chorus Angelicus in our giant brick and steel cathedral is so moving. We are also going to hear the special piece Sandra Boynton wrote and Mike Ford arranged expressly for AMP.

Hope you have your tickets. This one is going to be memorable.

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
August 2022

July was spent dividing time between meeting the kids in our camps and continuing to work on plans for installing more of our collaborative projects created across the country in the Ramp Gallery. It is hard to work when so many fabulous things are happening at AMP—admiring the skills of all of our teaching artists as they create murals indoors, make magical music with the campers, plant native pollinating plants, and build new amazing structures outdoors.

As far as my work, I am really psyched about what is happening on the back ramp. Every section Justin and I tackle brings back so many memories for me, some from 15 years back. I am reminded of all the people we have been privileged to meet on this project and all the singular experiences we have had in so many magical places in this country. And the best part of all this is happening now. Every time we hammer up another group of assembly pieces we are including more and more of these experiences and sharing with all our visitors all these faces of America, all these creations, all the contributions others have made to AMP. This mural becomes more robust and powerful every day as more and more of the people all over this country become part of it.

I can’t wait to finish this up so we can unlock the back ramp and share it with everyone.

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Art at Work: Education

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Art at Work: Education
July 27, 2022

We are excited to welcome the Sphero Bot program to AMP this week as a complement to CHAMPS @AMP! The kids use various materials to design armor for small, round robots that they control with an iPad. They enter the ring and compete to try and pop one another's balloon. Top designs included a balloon entirely protected by a thick layer of duct tape, and another with a tight fence of popsicle sticks. Big thanks to the The Kids of Summer Foundation for funding this exciting program!

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Ellen's Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
July 2022

This past week was one of the coolest weeks ever at AMP. Three programs going on simultaneously—Create @AMP, Outdoor Design & Build, and Digital Story Work—with kids inside, outside, and all over. Abigail and Ben were greeting visitors at the front desk. Ted and Vance were leading the Digital Story Work interns, Morgan and Sam, who were moving around filming on the ramps as visitors came in. Michelle, our education programs director, was alternating between inside and outside programs. Justin, John, and I were making noise that no one seemed to hear as we installed plywood on the back ramp, readying for more collaborative projects to be added to the mural in the coming weeks. And Sam Posey’s voice echoed through the building on a video voice-over for one of our collaborative project videos that visitors were watching in the video viewing room. Our teaching artists, Shana, Christine, and Chip, were just knocking it out all week. I talked to each of the kids in our Create @AMP program, and thanks to Shana’s incredible energy and talent as a teaching artist, these kids were fired up. Teens are not usually given to high energy enthusiasm but, in this group, not one person was tentative at all about telling me what they were trying to create, why they chose the materials they chose, and what they wanted in the final outcome.

If I had one dream about how cool it could be on a given day at AMP, last week was it in spades. “Build it and they will come.”

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AMPed UP

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AMPed UP
June 8, 2022

Welcome, Abigail, our new visitor services/education coordinator! She's a New Hartford native and earned a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts from Central Connecticut State University. She has worked with children in both a professional and volunteer capacity, from teaching Tang Soo Do to serving as a youth and family counselor. Abigail is an avid writer and creator, with a wide focus encompassing painting, fiber arts, and installation work, and is always looking to expand and share her toolkit.

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Ellen’s Work Blog

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Ellen’s Work Blog
June 2022

AMP is now less than three weeks away from our June 18 opening. The projects to complete, big and small, have pushed everyone to the limit but no one is complaining. Jamie from Scope has been heading the construction team, along with Tony and Mike from Vision Electric and all the Action Air guys. Their goal is to finish the upstairs education program room in time for our summer kids’ programs. Herbert’s crew from Premier, having just finished the floors in that space, will be spending the first days of June sanding and putting the finish on all the platform flooring.

As for our AMP staff, they have been working overtime to ready the mill for the opening. Abigail, the newest member of our crew, has been preparing for every possible scenario that relates to welcoming people into the space. Along with Ben, we have an all-star duo out in front. Amy, Shari, Sarah, Mimi, Ruthie, and Justin have been everywhere doing everything while Michelle finishes plans for a full summer of kids’ programs at AMP.

For all of us, this is the moment to celebrate and thank everyone who has worked with us on the building and the mural installation, all the volunteers who have given their time to help us, and people all over the country who have donated to our appeals. Without you, there would be no opening.

 
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