They will rebuild.
That’s the consensus among the Wheaton student artists who collaborated on one of three sculptures to be installed in the Franklin Sculpture Park, according to their teacher.
The art installation seemed like a great opportunity to the founders of the Franklin Sculpture Park, Ian and Linda Kabat, to work with a local college. An installation at the park of 116 Tyvek “book” sculptures, created by Wheaton College students of sculptor Kelly Goff, represented the 116 books donated by Benjamin Franklin to the first public library, here in Franklin, Mass. The first two phases of installation took place in early November, but when students arrived to put up the final 16 books of the exhibit after Thanksgiving, what had previously been put up was gone.
“Wheaton College was doing a public art class, said Linda Kabat, “and they came up with different proposals. We were choosing 2-3 for the sculpture park and two for Wheaton, and once the three were chosen, the whole class was all working as a team to build it. The students did their research about Franklin and really chose a piece that related to the town and the history.”
Upon realizing the pieces were taken, Kabat said, “The kids were devastated. The person who designed it, that was their first experience putting a sculpture in a public place, and for some it was the first time doing a sculpture.” The pieces have not been and probably will not be recovered, she said.
“It’s just unfortunate that this has happened. And it was not a kid that (took the sculptures). What I thought at first was someone went in there to vandalize them. The fact that they were totally removed from the sculpture park was upsetting, especially in a town like Franklin. People have been so accepting of the park.” Kabat says she has even seen local teenagers enjoying the park, walking through with headphones on.
The student artists, says Goff, “are obviously disappointed, because of some work lost, the physical work and the labor, but the spirit of the piece is a generous one, and it has this educational component, a point of pride for Franklinites, and so I think it would be great if they kind of think of this as a learning experience and show the resilience I know they have and remake the piece, and I think that’s what they intend to do, sometime in the spring.”
Sergeant Brian Johnson, of the Franklin Police Department, said the department, at the time of Local Town Pages publication in December, was still investigating, but had identified a person of interest thought to be responsible for the removal of the sculptures. “We are working with Wheaton to identify the best course of action,” said Johnson, noting that some details of the active investigation could not be released.
The value of the exhibit was in the work the students put into it, not the materials, says Goff, who has taught at Wheaton for about five years.
“They were pretty painstakingly created,” says Goff. “They’re made by hand, and we had a little bit of a handmade production line to create these books individually.” Goff says each book had several faux pages, and altogether, about 100 hours of labor was lost. He says he would love to see an organized effort, perhaps by town members, to get students together with the community to remake the pieces.
Goff says that overall, his students, who also have two other sculptures to install in the spring, have had to learn about the efforts that must go into making public art.
“When you teach a class about public art, there’s really only one way to do it; you have to make art in the public,” says Goff, who explains that pieces must be created out of durable materials and stand up to the elements, as well as some public wear and tear. “Working off campus was a really important part of the course. Students tasted reality more than once, with construction permitting, having to call Dig Safe, and more. It’s taken a lot of people to pull it off. (The stolen sculptures) was one small incident in a class that was pretty complex. So much more interesting stuff went on as well.”
Undeterred, Goff and his students are “excited to be in the Franklin community doing that work in the spring. It’s kind of an amazing thing that Franklin has this sculpture park. It’s a small town, but that small town did something pretty bold.”
Issue Date:
January, 2018
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