We like to think Concord is pretty special. And there’s lots of cool stuff around the city to back up our argument.
We’re not just saying that because it’s the Granite State capital’s 250th birthday this year, but it certainly has helped to solidify our point. Need more proof? Head over to the library one of these days and check out the Concord 250 mosaics. They’re the four rather big and colorful panels hanging on the walls above the ramp. You can’t miss them.
There’s one of the State House, another featuring the Concord Coach and a third highlighting the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. The fourth represents the Abenaki tribe that called Concord home so long ago. There are other things in the mosaics like a white birch tree, a white-tailed deer, the state bird (which is a purple finch), pumpkins and the Karner blue butterfly all put together using recycled vitreous stained glass, stones, rocks and pieces of mirror held together with cement, with a fresh topping of grout to fill in the gaps.
“We wanted to make something iconic,” said Lizz Van Saun of Kast Hill Studio in Hopkinton, who was the lead artist.
Where did these panels come from you ask? Well, it was the idea of Jessica Fogg Livingston, who as part of the Creative Concord Committee has been talking for some time about a need for public art.
“It just fit so well with the 250th,” Livingston said.
So she contacted Van Saun, who knows a thing or two about mosaics, and the ball started rolling.
“Once we decided it was going to happen, we started talking about what was going to be represented,” Van Saun said.
Van Saun came up with the ideas and drew the four panels to quarter size scale.
“I wanted to make images that were fun and colorful,” Van Saun said.
And once the ideas were approved, they started bringing the panels around to different events. They went to the New Year’s Eve Gala, Granite State Music Festival, Market Days, the Arts Market, Girls Inc., the Boys & Girls Club, a Concord Young Professionals Network event among others. And over the course of the project, at least 1,000 people helped put it together.
“Some people just put their one piece on, while others stayed for a while,” Livingston said.
So when people talk about a community art project, it doesn’t get any better then this.
The mosaics were unveiled last Friday at the library and will hang there for the foreseeable future. Those who took part looked for the piece they put on and others marveled at the end result.
“It’s the best feeling to see the finished product,” Livingston said.
Now, if you haven’t seen them yet we only have one question: what are you waiting for?
