For the Twombly-Hussey family of Matinicus, the opening of the art show “Building Bridges” at Julia’s Gallery at the Farnsworth Art Museum, was a major event.
Lydia Twombly-Hussey had over six of her watercolors featured in the show, along with artwork from eight other island students. The show, which opened in December 2007, was part of a two-year program created through a partnership between Julia’s Gallery and Archipelago, the gallery and gift shop at the Island Institute, to teach island students about the world of art, from creating it, to framing it, to exhibiting it.
This summer, the show is traveling to each of the islands where the students are from: Isle au Haut, Islesboro, Matinicus, North Haven and Vinalhaven.
But the show started at Julia’s Gallery in Rockland. The program paid for the students and family members to come to see the opening.
Until this point, Lydia was just enjoying the chance to work with an artist she has known her whole life, Maurice Colton. In the summer of 2007 Colton taught her drawing, how to paint watercolors and plaster casting. After the first two lessons, “I was really amazed because I could draw stuff that looked real,” she said.
Then came the show. “I hadn’t really thought much about it,” said Lydia, who will be an eighth-grade student at Matinicus Island School in the fall. “To get there and to see everything up on the wall, and know that people had come to see it-that was really cool.”
Lydia’s parents, Nat and Lisa Twombly-Hussey, were naturally proud of their daughter. “It was kind of her first public appearance as a young adult,” Nat said. “That’s the transformation that excited me.” And he was extremely impressed by the skill shown in all the work done by island students.
“I think the raw material was there,” Nat said, about his daughter’s interest in art. “But to have a focused, extended program like that was great. I know the more you start digging into things like that early, the more it’s going to develop over time.”
The idea for the project came about from conversations between Amy Putansu, outgoing store manager of Archipelago and Erin Brainard, Julia’s Gallery coordinator. They wanted a way for island students to get the type of experience that mainland students receive at Julia’s Gallery for Young Artists, run by the Farnsworth to help students learn about art and museum operations.
“The idea for the project was for kids attending island schools where art programming may not meet the needs of talented young people, to have the chance to experience not only technical training, but also the professional side of art making,” said Putansu. “And most importantly, realizing that art making can be a sustainable career option.”
With a $20,000 grant from the Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth section of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the help of the Island Institute and the Farnsworth, the project became possible.
The challenge for this project – transportation – is a familiar one for islanders. “The major issue is transportation – how do we engage with them? This was a way that we could pull together enough resources to make it happen,” said Brainard. The grant paid for overnight accommodations for students and their families for mainland trips as part of the project.
Last year, Putansu, working with island art teachers, selected the students. Last summer students worked for 45 hours with their mentor artist. Taking part in this project are: Abigail Hiltz and Ethan Mao, from Isle au Haut; Brittney Pendleton and Samantha Durkee, from Islesboro; Twombly-Hussey, from Matinicus; Rory Curtin and Abby Campbell, from North Haven; and Courtney Oxton and Kate Hamilton, from Vinalhaven.
The students came to Rockland for an orientation and when their show opened in Julia’s Gallery last December. On a third trip, the students were given a tour by artist Bo Bartlett of his show, “Still Point,” which was at the Farnsworth last summer and fall. They also met with artist Jamie Wyeth.
During the summer, the students created their own work. The artists who worked with them are: David Evelyn of Islesboro; Herb Parsons of North Haven; Colton, of Matinicus; Agnes Terry of Vinalhaven; and Alison Richardson of Isle au Haut.
Then they had to decide what they would display in the show. Island students learned from mainland students at Julia’s Gallery how to mat and frame their work, and how to pack it to travel for exhibition, according to Brainard.
As the show travels to each island, the student-artists on that island get to pick the works to display, hang the works (with the help of parents and friends) and organize an opening reception. Parsons was impressed that students had to fill out sheets when the works came making sure there are no marks or damage. “Erin Brainard had this terribly well-organized,” Parsons said.
Last summer, as Lydia worked on her art, she started to view her island differently. And she is less interested in subjects from nature that often attract artists from away. Her father goes lobstering as a sternman, and she would look for her subjects down near the dock. “I would probably paint people fixing up their traps on the dock and stuff – more likely than painting a tree.”
“Building Bridges” opens at the Isle au Haut School July 5 and runs through July 19. It opens July 29 at the Matinicus church and runs through Aug. 12. On Aug. 23, the show opens at the Islesboro Historical Society and will be displayed through Sept. 7. The show opens Sept. 13 at the yellow schoolhouse on Vinalhaven, closing Sept. 27.