Coming Back Together – An intimate gathering space
June 11, 2022 — July 23, 2022
On view Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00-5:00 pm and Sundays from 1:00-4:00 pm
Cape Ann Museum Green
13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA
Free and open to the public, registration to visit CAM Green required. For questions or further details contact [email protected] or call 978-283-0455 x110.
Join the Cape Ann Museum in celebration of local artist and community builder Doris Prouty for two public workshops on June 11 and on Juneteenth 2022. Doris was “a person who helped people be themselves, to connect with each other, to play, and to do great things.” (Doris Prouty Foundation) Motivated by her life and her “Going Home” quilt showcasing the magnificent Tree of Life, artists Claudia Paraschiv and Sika Foyer will create “Coming Back Together – an intimate gathering space” on the Cape Ann Museum Green.
Coming Back Together, a colorful garden folly made up of tenderly wrapped tree stumps, limbs, and abstract foliage, honors the artistry and embodied life values of Doris’ quilts into a space for whimsy, storytelling, and friends. Wrapping natural elements in colorful African prints help connect people with the various ethnographic wrapping rituals and cultures that exist in the community. The wrapping exercise raises awareness about the types of wrapping practices and rituals embedded in the lives of people and in their communities and why.
After its life on the Cape Ann Museum Green, the installation will be gifted to AgriCulture: a new growing and gathering space down the road at Willowood Gardens, a Gloucester Housing Authority community. The project is spearheaded by Backyard Growers with funding from the Essex County Community Foundation. We celebrate Doris’ spirit of giving since “the giving of her quilts became a source of showing love to her friends.” (Doris Prouty Foundation)
The community is invited to participate: we will make together on June 11 and sit together on Juneteenth (June 19). Coming Back Together will be crafted with the participation of community members much like a sewing circle. All skill levels are welcome and useful! The finished folly will invite people to sit, connect and share stories, while immersed in color.
Image Credit: Doris Prouty (1947-2020). Going Home, 2018. 45” x 45.” Collection of the Prouty Family.