Figment Project Promises Busy Day of Artmaking This Saturday
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Sometimes it just takes a kernel of an idea to get a community imagining up all kinds of possibilities.
On Saturday, one of those ideas will sprout into Figment North Adams, bringing community and arts together at Windsor Lake.
From stage readings and bands, to blacklight face-painting and plastic bag weaving, to yoga and wishing maps, the 6 1/2-hour event will be part arts festival, part block party, part family fun.
Figment is now an international movement that started in 2007 with a free event in New York. Its mission is to forge social and peronal interactions through participatory art.
"Rule No. 1 is to get everyone involved," said Krystal Henriquez, a Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, senior who brought the festival to the Windsor Lake Recreation Commission last October.
Henriquez had volunteered with the Boston event the year before and hoped to recreate that big-city experience in the state's smallest city.
Once the word got out, she met with a outpouring of enthusiasm — some 45 volunteers and more than 50 art projects will be on hand Saturday.
"There was so much people wanted to share," she said. "I'm really happy the way that people responded."
Henriquez and communications coordinator Meghan Robertson, a manager and intern coordinator at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, obviously shared that enthusiasm as they spoke about the project at the Parlor on Friday morning.
"When I saw so many people get behind it in year one, it shows what a great community that we live in, that North Adams would embrace something like that," said Robertson.
"I put on festivals all over the place and we don't get that many volunteers ... it's very rare," said Peter Milesi, who is working lighting and some other things for Figment. "North Adams, with a small group of people, you can connect with everyone who matters ... we make a great little community."
Robertson said she'd tagged along to an organizing meeting with some other Mass MoCA staff and was immediately hooked on the idea. The volunteer traveling the furthest is from Hong Kong and is flying in to see how a first-time Figment runs.
"She really just wants to have that firsthand experience," said Henriquez. "It's going to be exciting to have her here."
Of the 53 applications, about a dozen were from outside the immediate area. That includes Danielle Baudrand of Keene, N.H., and her Plastic Bag Project. (Bring some bags with you to braid.)
A jury team was created to vet applications and ended up accepting all submissions, although there was some tweaking that had to be done to make them fit the Figment Project.
It's not about hanging a painting, said Henriquez, but how individuals can interact with the art being presented. Applicants were pushed to find ways to present their art in Figment form.
"That's what I love about Figment, too, is having that conversation ... how can we experiment and push the boundaries?" she said.
"There are people who maybe are interested in art but may not do it in their day to day life," Robertson said. "So this is an outlet because it is a safe environment where their idea will be fostered"
They have a few favorites they're looking forward to seeing, including an oversized Candy Land game created by Clarksburg School. Henriquez has been working with the students every Friday to come up with rug pieces as spaces, oversized candy and costumed characters. The school is also presenting a map for attendees to write their recollections and dreams of travel.
Robertson is excited about Barrington Stage's youth theater program performing a new work for Saturday.
"They have about 25 to 30 12- to 16-year-old Pittsfield students who have been working on this for the past two months to get it ready for Figment," she said.
There's also "Figment in a Jar" by artist MJ Shannon, also from MCLA, who's a bit of the queen of the fest with seven or eight projects. Shannon will be handing out recycled mason jars as you enter and it will be up to you to fill it.
"What you should do is go to every single project and try to pick up something, it may be a leaf from the ground, something that you remember from that project and that's the takeaway," said Robertson.
"Everybody wants something to go home with," laughed Henriquez.
Saturday is also the annual Community Service Day so MCLA students will be helping clean up and set up in the morning.
The festival opens at 3 p.m. and runs to 9:30; the projects are family friendly all day, but there is more of a focus on more adult activities during Figment After Dark from 7 to 9:30.
Don't expect vendors to be available — the festival is completely non-commercial and alcohol free.
"We're encouraging people to bring a picnic ... it's a potluck sort of thing and there's grills there for cooking up hamburgs and hot dogs," Henriquez said. "It's kind of a big picnic party if people want to come and share."
There will also be time to chill, or leave and come back. Some activities, particularly on the stage, are scheduled while others will be ongoing. They will be clustered somewhat according to type with plenty of green space in between and time to take in a busy day of art.
The schedule should be posted early this week, along with any suggested materials to bring. Check the project's Facebook page.
"North Adams needs something like this ... everyone feels comfortable no matter where you are on the art spectrum," Robertson said. "You can find something you can hold onto."
Tags: arts festival, figment, Windsor Lake,
