WEBUTUCK — Webutuck’s year-long Arts in Education assembly series ended on Friday, May 6, with an educational jazz performance.Organized in a joint effort by art instructor Samuel FitzGerald, physical education instructor Doug Winslow and choral instructor Lee Stowe, the program, which was revived this year, is “infusing culture into the curriculum to build a school that’s deep in the arts,” according to FitzGerald.Friday’s assembly introduced the high school students to jazz music and singing. Short lectures given by Stowe on the history and culture of jazz were interspersed among live performances from the chorus class, the jazz band, two Webutuck music instructors and two guest musicians.“We’ve got two professional jazz musicians on staff here, so it’s great,” said FitzGerald, referring to Stowe and Jay Bradley.The guest musicians, David Winograd and Charlie Tokarz, garnered enthusiastic whoops from the audience with their performances. After marching into the auditorium while playing a catchy tune, Winograd excited the crowd with improv scat singing and Tokarz impressed by playing two saxophones at the same time.Previous assemblies from the Arts in Education program have introduced the students to topics such as Native American dance and music and Afro-Brazilian dance. The latter included capoeira instruction for the students.Winslow said he was pleased with the events, but was particularly happy with the jazz assembly. “What I liked about today is that they had a lot of our kids perform, too,” he said. Previous presentations were interactive, but did not include Webutuck students on the same level as the jazz assembly, which had multiple musical and vocal performances from the students.The Arts in Education program does not receive funding from the school budget. Instead, all of its resources are earned through fundraisers, including a chicken barbecue and a fruit sale.“We wanted to do Shakespeare, but we didn’t have the money,” said Winslow. FitzGerald said that next year would have more fundraisers to ensure that the program can offer strong assemblies on a wider variety of art-related topics.At a time when many schools across the country are cutting art and music programs, Webutuck is bucking the trend. The students definitely seemed to appreciate it. There were multiple occasions during the hour-long assembly when the entire auditorium clapped along with the music. Students also danced down the aisles as they filed out of the auditorium. Some even stayed behind to dance and enjoy the last song played by the music instructors and the guest musicians.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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