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“I have pieces of wood that’ll sit around for years and then suddenly, I’m looking at it and think, ‘Oh! This is what you want to be,’” said artist Ani Jenkins whose extraordinary solo exhibit of wood sculptures opened at Housatonic Valley High School’s Kearcher-Monsell Gallery on December 13. This show marks a new milestone for the gallery, featuring its first collection of exclusively three-dimensional works. Jenkins, who moved to Falls Village during the Covid-19 pandemic, has brought her intricate and interactive wood sculptures to the Northeast, much to the delight of students, staff, and visitors.
Jenkins grew up in Boulder, Colorado, surrounded by art, as her mother was pursuing her MFA during that time. Her exploration of wood began in the 90’s when she had an opportunity to take an inlay class. “Everything came so easily and naturally, it was as if I’d been working with wood my entire life,” said Jenkins. She continued to work for many years adding inlay to furniture and musical instruments but shared, “I was craving more three-dimensionality, so I started playing around with all the little scraps and cut-offs and building sculptures with those. It all just exploded and snowballed.” Her practice eventually evolved into creating larger, sculptural pieces that are infused with deep mystical themes, reflections of ancient civilizations and visions of times and places still yet to be seen.
“Wood tells a story,” Jenkins explained. “A lot of these pieces almost build themselves. It’s about getting out of the way rather than intentionally creating.”
The exhibit at HVRHS, titled “Visions,” was curated by students under the guidance of senior Elinor Wolgemuth, the gallery’s lead intern. As part of her role overseeing gallery operations, Wolgemuth used the experience to develop her senior capstone project: a comprehensive guide to help future student interns manage the gallery effectively.
“It’s a step-by-step guide on how to have a show, how to run an opening, things like that. It’s about creating a team that will flow throughout the years and work together,” said Wolgemuth. Jenkins noted of the students’ dedication, “They’ve been as professional as any gallery I’ve ever worked with.”
Art teacher Lilly Barnett, who started at the school this fall, emphasized the importance of showcasing Jenkins’s work. “Ani elevates the artistry of woodworking, breaking traditional gender stereotypes. It’s powerful for our students to see.” FFA students have also expressed admiration for Jenkins’s craftsmanship, with many inspired by the precision and creativity in her pieces.
Jenkins and her family relocated from the west coast to Falls Village in 2020. Never having been to the east coast, the artist was delighted to find that surrounded by Connecticut’s hardwood forests, she was newly inspired. “I’m much more of a small-town person, so this is a great place to be,” she said. Having grown up in Northern New Mexico and Colorado, her work often reflects mystical themes, ancient civilizations, and the essence of the natural world. “There’s a lot of femininity in my work,” Jenkins shared. “I love bringing flowing lines into my pieces, contrasting with the rigidity of traditional woodworking.”
Jenkins’s fascination with “containment” is evident in her work, which often features hidden drawers, compartments, and interactive elements designed to engage viewers. The intricate wooden creations invite touch and exploration, offering a magical, hands-on experience. Even better, all the pieces are available for purchase, with proceeds supporting the school’s art department.
Ani Jenkins’s intricate and interactive sculptures have brought a unique and inspiring artistic experience to Housatonic Valley High School’s Kearcher-Monsell Gallery. “I’d like to be an artist after high school,” said Wolgemuth. “I’m not sure if I want to do curatorial or more freelance work with my own art, but finding that balance is important to me.”
“I want to build fully moving pieces—big totems where people can arrange all the different pieces,” said Jenkins, hinting at future projects.
The exhibit will be on view through January 10, 2025. To make an appointment, call (860) 824-5123
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.