Artists Elizabeth Billings, Andrea Wasserman and I collaborated on a creative place-making public art project for the town of Brattleboro, Vermont, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant.  The project, From the River, To the River, consisted of five interelated art installations considering the inique relationship between the town of Brattleboro and the Connecticut River.  

The goal: to find a way, through art, to strengthen the connection of town and river, to bring awareness of the river to the town and bring the people of the town to the river.

First, a community volunteer effort cleared a prominent river view at the Riverfront--the only river access in the heart of Brattleboro, previously rendered  inaccessible by years of overgrown brush.

Next, siting twelve Granite Benches next to the river enlivened the open green space. River Portrait, an 8’ x 25’ photographic collage of the myriad colors and moods of the river, completes an outdoor area designed for contemplation and congregation.

Just a four minute walk from river at the Transportation Center, River Wall, a 32’x32’ kinetic sculpture on the parking garage’s facade, brings the luminescence of the water into the center of town.  38,000 sequin disks move in the air currents, echoing patterns of wind on water.

Next to the Transportation Center is Projected Water, a video in which photographs of people in the Brattleboro community are interwoven with water imagery.  Over three hundred people volunteered to participate in the video project.  The silhouettes of those individuals are included in the tapestry of this 8-minute video, projected onto the wall of the Sanel Building every hour on the hour from dusk through 11 pm, for a full year.  

Reflective River Panels, poetry by Cora Brooks, Jody Gladding and Joseph and Jesse Bruchac on mirrored glass, are situated at both sites and join with individuals’ reflections to become a part of this community connecting to the river.

From the River, To the River is a momentum, through art, towards a collective awareness of the vital resource of the river.