Where we live is fundamental to human identity and well-being. Schools, shelters, churches, institutional residences, and urban and suburban neighborhoods express the ways in which the social and economic ideas of home combine. The participation of each individual is essential to the creation of a community. “It Takes a Village” is an interactive project that asks each person to imagine the concept and reality of “home”. Creating a home out of clay invites the participant into a collaborative endeavor that will be used to illustrate community and individual identity.
Vines, roots, and plants from Connecticut will further emphasize how communities are bound collectively, by people and the homes they live in. The installation will bring people of Ct. together in collaboration to express their personal and universal aspirations. The actual installation will include all the houses created by those in different groups and settings within our community. Empowering the residents of homeless shelters, hospitals, institutions, fairs, and parties are of particular relevance given the recent economic and storm events in our state.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
From the environment to social mores, Denise Minnerly’s passion and reverence for life frees her work as she moves and transforms through her art. Denise Minnerly graduated from the University of Vermont with a BS in art education and BFA in the arts. She continued her art education at the Arts Student League in New York City and the Silvermine School of Art in Connecticut. She is the illustrator of three published children’s books relating to art; The Color Tree, Molly Meets Mona and Friends, and Painting the Town. Minnerly exhibits her work in the Tri-State area. Her paintings are displayed by public corporations throughout the Northeast.
Don Bracken was raised in San Francisco and graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in Fine Art. He has shown extensively on the East and West Coast and has been included in shows at the Aldridge Museum, Mattituck Museum, and the New York State Museum in Albany, among others. He has had artist-in-residence fellowships at the Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony for the Arts and in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Don’s work is in numerous collections, including the State of Connecticut, those of the Federal Reserve Bank, and Yeshiva University. Over the last few years, he has incorporated vines and roots into not only his paintings but also sculptures and installations, because of his fascination with their gestural kineticism.
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