A New Way To Clean up In the Art World


What’s green, has style and comes around every spring in Cornwall?

There’s probably more than one answer to that question, but you get the prize only if you were thinking Art @ the Dump.

Call it the art show that recycles, the art show to feel good about, whatever, but go and have fun. Better yet, go and bring something trashy.

It’s the ninth annual Art @ the Dump, and how it came to be bears repeating.

Founder Gail Jacobsen was inspired by her husband Jeff’s weekly trips to the town dump. There, former "dumpmaster" Art Breen would dispense his wit and wisdom. Jeff would pass these gems on to his wife, beginning always with "Art at the dump said…"

This is the year she passed the reins to Richard Griggs, one of the show’s most prolific artists. There’s nothing he likes better than to turn scraps of metal and other found objects into sculpture. Tiny motors from old VCRs set the sculpture in motion.

Just as likely to be found are toilets, old shoes, mannequins and toys, anything, as long as it was pulled off the trash heap and molded into art.

It shouldn’t even have to be said that humor, sometimes outright hilarity, is a mainstay of this event. Artists, and those who don a beret only this one time during the year, have bagged things like discarded medical equipment from the side of the road and turned them into masterpieces.  

A most memorable prize-winner was a truly beautiful wedding dress made from Tyvek and plastic garbage bags.

And where else are there people’s choice winners and a venue that truly reflect the theme: the dump (transfer station) sand shed.

"Call it ‘green art,’ " Griggs said, latching onto the current energy consciousness of the town. "We’re leading the way into a new way to recycle. Create art and green up the world. I see Cornwall as the mecca for trash art."

April 19 and 20 are the dates to set aside this year. For those keeping score, that’s two days instead of the usual one. Most items are for sale, with 30 percent of the proceeds benefiting the Cornwall Consolidated School art department.

Griggs said he wanted to expand it to allow more people to see the show, and to participate.

"I think it should be more of a regional thing. We’re getting more artists from outside of Cornwall and I think that’s great. As it grows, it may be able to benefit things around the region."

 

 


 The show runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Art should be dropped off between 8 and 10 a.m. on Saturday.

 

The Cornwall transfer station is located off Route 4, just south of Route 125. For more information, contact Griggs at 860-672-6208 or thing@optonline.net.

 

Latest News

Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less