Gloucester Daily Times
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/

Published: August 11, 2006   

The legend of Joe Papp Author to give talk on theater advocate's life in NYC
By Dom Nicastro, Editor
Gloucester Daily Times

Seeing seARTS
Helen Epstein

Editor's Note: "Seeing seARTS" is an occasional feature highlighting work by Society for the Encouragement of the Arts members and those who participate in seARTS events. seARTS is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to re-establish Cape Ann as a world-class center for working artists, in balance with its character of Cape Ann as a maritime community.

"Hidden Value," my exhibit on display at Pulaski Park in Northampton, examines the premise that everyday people make vital, under-recognized contributions to their communities through work and civic life.

In many instances, people may not realize contributions they make as they go about their daily lives. Sometimes, their contributions may not be acknowledged or valued, even as they routinely impact others in quiet, unheralded ways.

How do we measure this impact? How do we communicate it? What constitutes achievement and success? Where does society attribute value?

I investigated these questions by interviewing five Northampton citizens: a college professor, public librarian, trash and recycling collector, grocer, and waitress, and some people whose lives they touch through their work.

I then chose everyday objects associated with their occupations, such as school desks, a bookcase, trash cans, a roller conveyor and bar stools, and transferred texts from interviews and research onto those objects.

By altering these objects to reveal people's voices, and by arranging them in a public space, I hope to communicate the hidden value of their work.

Viewers glimpse a community through the impact of particular individuals, and the meaning of their work is exposed in a new context.

The installations grew out of the uniqueness of each participant. Nevertheless, participants are meant to represent all of us and our capacity to contribute to our community.


A critique: Public art at its finest

By Joseph Krupczynski, Public Art Committee chairman, Northampton Arts Council

Public art takes many forms. Perhaps we're most familiar with a sculpture of a historical figure, a granite monument, or a painted mural adorning a wall.

While such traditional public art has and will continue to play a role in Northampton, "Hidden Value," a temporary public art installation by Lara Lepionka in Northampton's Pulaski Park, works toward more complex aesthetic and social goals.

This exhibit emerged from a call for proposals for a site-specific temporary art installation that would expand public awareness of, and involvement in, contemporary art in Northampton.

The temporary nature of the work is important in reinvigorating the role of public art in our community. While public art tends to suggest the timeless and immutable - the very "stuff" of traditional monuments - we hope to show that temporary works can provide the most timely and dynamic commentary on our lives.

"Hidden Value" was selected from a group of more than 30 proposals from local, national and international artists, because it clearly embodies our mission to expand conventional notions about people, places and the art-making process.

Lepionka's work is part of an effort by contemporary artists to create works through a participatory process. Her use of interviews, quantitative analysis, and the imaginative reuse of everyday objects, are strategies that question artistic conventions. Her work asks the public to critically consider their assumptions about the nature of art.

The work also lets us see how art can be a catalyst to get people to value the unheralded, but essential, contributions individuals make. The people who helped generate this artwork are recognized as community experts. As Lepionka notes, they "represent all of us and our capacity to contribute to the life of a community."

The opportunity to experience a work of art that authentically engages a place and creatively locates us within our community is a breath of fresh air, and cause for celebration.

The exhibit

Artist: Lara Lepionka, seARTS member

Age: 34

Town: Gloucester

Title of public art project: "Hidden Value"

Commissioned by: Northampton Arts Council

Location: Pulaski Park, downtown Northampton, Mass.

On view: July through October 2006

Tour of work, artist talk and reception: Friday, Aug. 11, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

More information: www.northamptonartscouncil.org

The artist

Lara Lepionka is an interdisciplinary, community-based artist living in Gloucester.

She has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group shows in Chicago, New York and New England and was an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center and Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council and two Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program grants.

She will be featured in the upcoming anthology "The Object of Labor: Critical Perspectives on Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production," published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Press.

She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BA from Bard College.

"I wish to express special thanks to Rich Cooper, Danny Crawford, Ina Kapitan, Barbara Kellum and an anonymous participant for making 'Hidden Value' possible," Lepionka said. "I also would like to thank others I interviewed in the community, including those who are not represented in the final work."

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